Wesco Distribution was originally hired to furnish electrical supplies for a job at the Pierce County Energy Retrofit job at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. According to Wesco Distribution’s court suit, they were not paid for materials worth $62,407. Since All Temperatures Controlled was the original contractor on this project, they were sued for this money. In addition, the project owner, the Los Angeles Community College District, was also sued. This is yet another sad example of how a hapless construction customer was dragged into court because of a payment dispute between two contractors.

All Temperatures Controlled originally agreed to supply approximately $94,000 of equipment and labor to Fassburg Construction for a heating, ventilating and air conditioning system to the Brentwood Place on Wilshire Blvd, a top-shelf address in Los Angeles. All Temperatures Controlled says they were not paid. They filed a lien against the property and followed it with a court suit against Fidelity, who issued the performance bonds for that job.

Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland objected. They answered that All Temperatures Controlled had unclean hands and were barred under several legal doctrines from recovering any money and failed to mitigate their claimed damages.

Then the case was merged with another court suit filed by All Temperatures Controlled against Fassburg Construction, the general contractor on that job. The whole mess was later settled, but not before the unfortunate property owner, the general contractor and the insurance company had to wade through a

court suit.

In 1999-2000, All Temperatures Controlled was hired to do a job for perhaps the largest construction customer in the State of California— the University of California. The proposed work was the furnishing and installation of heating, venting and air conditioning systems for the University of California at Los Angeles campus’ Kerchoff Hall project. All Temperatures Cont-rolled’s arrangement was not actually with the University of California, but instead was through another contractor, Rine Development.

All Temperatures Controlled also had arrangements through Rine Development for several other jobs with another large California client, the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In sum, All Temperatures Controlled sued Rine Development for a total of $188,903 over charges of unpaid construction claims. This is one matter that ended up in court.

Another matter is the issue of All Temperatures Controlled’s legal tactics. Not only did All Temperatures Controlled sue Rine Development, they also sued the Los Angeles Unified School District. This, in effect, dragged the construction customer into court because of All Temperatures Controlled’s dispute, not with the customer, but with another contractor.

All Temperatures Controlled ultimately sued not only the school district and Rine Development, but

two of the bonding companies for both the University of California and the Los Angeles School District jobs.

However, All Temperatures Controlled did not get a free ride in this litigation. One of the bonding companies, Developers Insurance, promptly filed a cross-complaint. All Temperatures Controlled ultimately filed to dismiss the case against the other parties, just seven months after it had originally been filed. The cross-complaint by Developers Insurance was not dismissed and the court awarded a default judgement on Developers’ motion, four months later.

In too many construction disputes, a failure to communicate over a change order starts all parties down the slippery road into a court room battle. That appears to be the situation in this case, which was filed in June 2001. The construction job started innocently enough, when ACC Contractors hired All Temperatures Controlled to install a heating, venting and air conditioning system at Taft High School in Canoga Park, California.

ACC Contractors originally agreed to pay All Temperatures Controlled $470,000 for that work. Along the way, the job grew. In the end, ACC Contractors paid over $700,000 to All Temperatures Controlled, which was almost twice the original price, according to the court suit. But All Temperatures Controlled said that wasn’t enough money and they wanted another $58,386. When ACC Contractors did not pay up quickly, All Temperatures Controlled filed a court suit against ACC.

All Temperatures Controlled claimed it was the lowest bidder on the Mission Community Hospital project in Los Angeles County. But All Temperatures Controlled charged that Turner Construction took a kickback from another contractor to revoke its bid award to All Temperatures Controlled, gave the work to that other contractor and then told All Temperatures Controlled to get their trailer off of the project premises.

All Temperatures Controlled claimed that this was an unfair and unlawful business practice and interference with their business advantage for Turner, Mission Hospital and the contractor to accept "kickback money."

According to the court documents, in October 2000 All Temperatures Controlled asked for the $36,212 in set up expenses it had already incurred in this suit against their own prospective customer and a large general contractor.

All Temperatures Controlled originally agreed to supply approximately $68,000 of equipment and labor for a heating, venilating and air conditioning system at the San Jose Elementary School in Mission Hills, near Los Angeles. All Temperatures Controlled also claimed that they agreed to supply approximately $44,000 of equipment and labor to MS Construction for the Gault Street Elementary School in Van Nuys, for a total of over $111,000 in labor and equipment.

All Temperatures Controlled says they were not paid, so in August of 2000 they filed a court suit against the school district, the bonding company and MS Construction who was the general contractor, as stated in

the original lawsuit.

The school district filed an answer to the lawsuit, charging that All Temperatures Controlled failed to perform their contractual duties and promises and that All Temperatures Controlled was liable for offset and back charges under the contract’s liquidated damages provision.

MS Construction Management filed their own answer, pointing out that All Temperatures Controlled’s construction license had lapsed, which could bar them from filing a court action. All Temperatures Controlled’s complaint was dismissed just a few months later.

This lawsuit with its important implications for the construction industry was filed on September 11, 2000. Labor Ready, one of the country’s largest suppliers of temporary construction labor, is suing All Temperatures Controlled, one of Southern California’s largest sheet metal contractors.

Labor Ready charges in this suit that they had a contract to supply laborers to All Temperatures Controlled over the past four years, yet All Temperatures Controlled has failed to pay Labor Ready for those services. Now Labor Ready charges that All Temperatures Controlled owes them over $64,076, plus 18% interest.

Although Labor Ready had asked All Temperatures for the money, they had not paid. However, All Temperatures Controlled claims that Labor Ready failed to properly notify and bill them for the correct prevailing wage rate for the laborers that they used. This meant that All Temperatures Controlled was denied the opportunity to determine whether or not to use those employees.

Part of All Temperatures Controlled’s problem in keeping a skilled, highly trained labor force on hand is that they are charged with discriminating against union-affiliated workers. All Temperatures Controlled is entitled to operate non-union. If the company is illegally discriminating against union members, they are not only breaking federal law, but they are also denying themselves and their clients access to a significant pool of well trained workers who have graduated from a stringent apprenticeship program.

In this June 2000 court suit, All Temperatures Controlled sued their general contractor, Statewide Construction and the construction customer (Los Angles School District). All Temperatures Controlled sued for a whopping $907 in work they had performed at the Fulbright Elementary School that was completed in 1999. Other All Temperatures Controlled claims involved more substantial sums. All Temperatures Controlled claimed that Statewide and the school district were liable for $33,907 worth of work performed at the Hamlin Street School. They also filed stop notices with the school district over their payment dispute with Statewide.

All Temperatures Controlled filed a suit in 1999 against the City of Angels Medical Center/Ingleside Hospital, in a dispute over payment for work at this facility. All Temperatures Controlled claimed they were still owed $365,108.

Preferred Concept sued All Temperatures Controlled in 1998, charging that All Temperatures Controlled had paid only $6,000 on a debt of $36,466. Preferred Concept supplied the work and materials to install an insulated wall and ceiling and freezer doors at Manhattan Bagel. Preferred Concept also filed a mechanic’s lien against Manhattan Bagel in San Fernando, California. In other words, Manhattan Bagel suffered a lien against its property, because All Temperatures Controlled did not pay its debts, according to the court complaint. All Temperatures Controlled was also charged with willful and deliberate violations of the California Business & Professional codes. In turn, as the following case demonstrates, All Temperatures Controlled filed its own lien and court suit.

This 1998 case is another sad commentary on the All Temperatures Controlled construction job at Manhattan Bagel. In this complaint, All Temperatures Controlled tried to collect on its own mechanic’s lien for this job. Originally, Manhattan Bagel agreed to pay All Temperatures Controlled $315,113 for a variety of freezer work, cooler work and set up of other food preparation units. Then Manhattan Bagel refused to pay $183,128 of that sum. All Temperatures Controlled sued these entities because they may have a right of ownership in the Manhattan Bagel property.

These two 1998 cases involve allegations of more problems at the All Temperatures Controlled job at Northridge Hospital. Ms. Pettiford was injured when All Temperatures Controlled and other contractors left debris across the walkway in the hospital’s parking garage. All Temperatures Controlled eventually paid Ms. Pettiford a settlement.

This important case could cause All Temperatures Controlled to pay large sums in back wages and owed benefits to many of its former and current employees. Despite the potential enormous liability to All Temperatures Controlled, they have been unable to settle this case. This litigation is still pending with a case status conference scheduled for October 4, 2002.

This Class Action Breach of Contract and Unlawful and Unfair Business Practice law suit was originally filed in October 2000. Jose Escobar, Mike Speck and Vincente Lopez Soriano were all sheet metal workers who were employees of All Temperatures Controlled during the last four years. This court complaint was filed on behalf of these three workers and all other All Temperatures Controlled employees who were employed on public works jobs. The workers charge that All Temperatures Controlled refused to pay them the legal and prevailing wages for their job classifications.

The suit also claims that All Temperatures Controlled failed to pay all of the wages due to the workers at the time of their termination of employment and that they breached its contract with various contractors and customers by failing to pay the agreed-on prevailing wages on public works jobs.