When a Texas drug company sustained tens of thousands of
dollars in flood damage, it came to the same conclusion that other
customers of Grinnell Fire Protection Company have come to: sue Grinnell
for providing faulty materials or shoddy workmanship.
The Medi-Flex Hospital Products Inc. of El Paso, Texas was flooded on
October 7, 1999 when a vast amount of water inundated the company's
facility on Butterfield Trail. The company, which manufactures
pharmaceuticals, sustained "a large amount of damage to the building,
building contents, (its) business products, inventory, personal property
and an interruption in (its) daily business," according to a lawsuit
filed against Grinnell Fire Protection Company.
According to the lawsuit, negligence on behalf of Grinnell was the
cause of the failure of the automatic fire protection sprinkler system.
Grinnell was "negligent in the design, manufacture, installation,
inspection, modification, repair and/or maintenance of the sprinkler
system," the lawsuit alleged.
Specifically, Medi-Flex claims that Grinnell installed a defective,
out-of-round six-inch tee section and interfit clamp that slipped off the
end of a six-inch header pipeline, causing a break in the system and
allowing water to flow onto the plaintiff's sensitive inventory.
The lawsuit claims that Grinnell installed faulty materials, breached
its warranty to supply proper materials and perform proper installation of
a sprinkler system.
Damage was estimated in excess of $160,000.
