Arbitrator Rules Los Angeles Unified School District Breached Contract in Abandoning Belmont Project.Business Editors LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2001 Ruling Cites "Indefensible" Conduct by School District, Awards More Than $17 Million to Developer, Contractor, Architect An arbitrator arbitrator n. one who conducts an arbitration, and serves as a judge who conducts a "mini-trial," somewhat less formally than a court trial. In most cases the arbitraror is an attorney, either alone or as part of a panel. ruled Friday that the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. improperly breached its contract in abandoning the Belmont Learning Center This Belmont Learning Center contains information about a building currently under construction. It may contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as construction progresses and new information becomes available. , and ordered the district to pay more than $17 million to the project's developer, architect and contractor. The ruling requires the district not only to pay for work completed on the project -- but also to pay developer Temple Beaudry Partners the full completion guarantee that would have been due when the school was completed. The claimants in the arbitration were developer Temple Beaudry Partners; contractor Turner/Kajima; and architect McClarand Vasquez & Partners. In ruling in their favor, arbitrator Steven A. Arbittier determined that the school district's conduct was "in many respects, indefensible." Arbittier rejected a counterclaim A claim by a defendant opposing the claim of the plaintiff and seeking some relief from the plaintiff for the defendant. A counterclaim contains assertions that the defendant could have made by starting a lawsuit if the plaintiff had not already begun the action. by the school district, and ordered LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) to pay attorney's fees attorney's fee n. the payment for legal services. It can take several forms: 1) hourly charge, 2) flat fee for the performance of a particular service (like $250 to write a will), 3) contingent fee (such as one-third of the gross recovery, and nothing if there is no and all costs associated with the arbitration. "We are extremely gratified grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. by this ruling," said Marvin Suomi, president and chief executive officer of Kajima Urban Development, the managing member of Temple Beaudry Partners. "It confirms that we fulfilled ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. every obligation on this project, and that the school district acted inappropriately in breaching our contract when it abandoned the project. "More importantly, it recognizes that the school district's inappropriate conduct unnecessarily damaged companies who had nothing to do with environmental and political decisions surrounding the project," Suomi said. "In its rush to abandon Belmont, the school district didn't care who was harmed," Suomi said. "They could have terminated the contract fairly. Instead they breached the contract and acted inappropriately. The arbitrator clearly recognized that." In addition to the monetary awards, the arbitrator ruled that: -- LAUSD had complete responsibility for managing environmental issues on the project; -- Temple Beaudry Partners, Turner/Kajima and McClarand Vasquez & Partners properly fulfilled all obligations under their contract with the district, and met all applicable standards of care; -- LAUSD's counterclaims of improper billing on the project are unfounded; -- LAUSD defaulted on the Disposition and Development Agreement for the project; -- LAUSD's "indefensible" conduct in breaching the contract "aggravated the already difficult situation created by the indefinite suspension of work and unnecessarily damaged innocent subcontractors who were not responsible for the shutdown and were simply trying to get paid for their work." |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion