Courtsuits: Over 1,100 & Counting

*as reported in FPC, Issue #4

According to a comprehensive court records search by the FPC, Grinnell has been involved in over 1,100 court suits in twenty five states over the last several years. This staggering number of suits indicates the potential scope of questionable and unsafe construction and maintenance work done by Grinnell, as well as revealing Grinnell's "take no prisoners attitude" when it comes to disputes with their customers and clients.

To the FPC's knowledge, this is the first effort to conduct a sweeping, national review of the litigation history of a construction and maintenance company. And with over eleven hundred cases already uncovered in only 25 states searched so far, the FPC expects that ultimately, over 2,000 cases involving Grinnell will be discovered. We will soon endeavor to look at the scores of federal District Courts for additional legal disputes.

This pattern of court suits may show some "hot spots" where Grinnell's work and safety history has been unsatisfactory. For instance, there are 98 suits involving Grinnell in Chicago alone. In Pennsylvania, there are an incredible 182 suits, including 150 suits where Grinnell is the defendant!

The sheer number of these suits raises many questions. To some observers, these numbers are not important because Grinnell is not the defendant in all of these cases. That is true. But Grinnell is the defendant in almost 500 or close to one-half of these cases. Some of the suits where Grinnell is the defendant involve accusation of faulty construction, worker injury cases, and other contractors suing Grinnell in payment disputes. That alone is bad enough.

To the FPC, the total number of cases is important, and not just the plaintiff/defendant breakdown. This is because in the suits where Grinnell is a plaintiff, this also means that Grinnell is usually suing a customer, client, or a fellow contractor. That information should be of concern to current and prospective clients, customers and contractors of Grinnell. Are you buying a court suit when you buy services or products from, or participate on a job with Grinnell? For hundreds of companies across the country, that was exactly the problem. Business with Grinnell meant they ended up getting sued. And to dozens, or possibly hundreds of clients, business with Grinnell meant you had to hire a lawyer and sue Grinnell merely to get a construction problem resolved. It is exactly this reliance on court room battles that is threatening to wreck the construction industry.

The FPC has reviewed files on hundreds of Grinnell's court cases, and presented summaries of these disputes in past issues. In this issue of FPC, LASER has summarized various types of courtsuits which were filed in numerous states across the country. Previous issues have summarized Grinnell's court disputes in Nevada, Oregon, Kentucky, and numerous cities spanning the state of California.