Another insurance company, this time in Michigan, sued Grinnell charging that their fire protection system had activated, but failed to operate properly causing the system’s pipes to burst, and to flood the building.

Medi-Flax Medical Products sued Grinnell, charging that a Grinnell owned company had negligently installed and maintained a fire sprinkler system that had flooded its El Paso storage facility.

In another court suit, a sprinkler system failed causing a flood at an Indiana company after Grinnell installed a defective fitting. Grinnell claimed the failed fitting was not their fault.

In Alaska, a worker sued Grinnell over injuries she said she suffered when gasses were released from a fire protection system while Grinnell was inspecting it.

An environmental inspection of a property revealed that a Grinnell owned company had spilled high levels of toxic materials, causing levels of contamination that even exceeded the standards in Texas.

A real estate developer sued Grinnell for fraud in Texas, charging that the company had damaged his reputation after a Grinnell backed project floundered.

Also in Texas, Grinnell sued two persons for embezzling almost $500,000 from the company.

Still in Texas, a contractor charged that a Grinnell operated backhoe damaged electrical conduits on one of his jobs.

In California, an experience Grinnell employee charged that Grinnell fired him as retaliation for complaining about a violation by Grinnell.

Given the history of fire sprinkler failures on systems installed and supplied by Grinnell/Tyco and their affiliated companies, the FPC wonders how many of the court suits in which Grinnell is suing its customers are the result of substandard systems supplied and installed by Grinnell.

The following are several examples of Grinnell suing and being sued by its own customers or fellow contractors, and its own employees. In some of these cases, there is plain evidence that Grinnell installed defective fire protection system. In other cases, it is often not possible to establish the details of these causes of action. The FPC does not charge that all of these suits are related to defective work or parts supplied by Grinnell, unless stated in the case description.

Medi-Flex Hospital Products, Inc. V Grinnell Fire Protection System, Others
Big Flood from a Fire Protection System

In February 2000 Medi-Flex Hospital Products sued Grinnell, because the failure of the fire protection system’s pipes caused a "vast amount of water" to inundate Medi-Flex’s facility, damaging the building, and their business products and inventory. In other words, the place got soaked. Medi-Flex had to dispose of a large part of their water-damaged inventory, because the laws do not allow use of water-damaged health products. According to the lawsuit, they claimed losses in the neighborhood of $166,000.

The suit charged that the fire protection system was defective and unsafe, and prone to breakage, and inherently dangerous. Specifically, a defective Tee-section had been installed, and had slipped off a pipeline, causing the system to break. Grinnell had merged with Sun City Fire Sprinkler Systems, who had originally installed the system. (Case #2000-554)

Bissell owns several commercial buildings in El Paso, Texas. One of their tenants was Grinnell Fire Protection. In March 2000, Grinnell moved out. Bissell received several nasty surprises when they inspected the property, including over $14,000 in damages. That was small change compared to what Bissell discovered when they investigated some discolored soils on the outside lands that Grinnell had leased. According to court documents, "When (Bissell) inspected the Leased Premises prior to Defendant Grinnell’s departure, Plaintiff noticed soil discoloration and other evidence that Defendant Grinnell had environmentally contaminated the premises ... Plaintiff hired an environmental firm ... Substantial environmental contamination was discovered that exceeded environmental regulatory limits, including xylenes and total petroleum hydrocarbons."

In other words, Bissell discovered their rental property was grossly polluted with toxic wastes, including toxic solvents and hydrocarbons levels over 10 times the permitted amounts by Texas regulations!

Bissell had to spend another $36,444 to inspect, test, and clean up Grinnell’s toxic mess. Bissell sued Grinnell for over $50,000 to cover the costs of the damaged property and the toxic clean up. (Case #2000-4049)

Grinnell installed leaking pipes and fittings on an offshore oil rig. In response, Grinnell sued its pipe and fittings supplier, and the supplier sued their own insurance company to cover the alleged damages, according to the filed lawsuit. (Case #538-963)

Tim Lowe had been in the Dallas area fire protection business for 25 years and developed a reputation for expertise. In fact, oil giant Mobil offered him a deal to install fire protection equipment in Equatorial Guinea, for well over $1.7 million. A contract of that magnitude should have propelled Lowe into the upper echelons of the fire protection industry. According to court documents what happened instead was that he was filing a counter-claim against Grinnell for breach of contract and fraud. At the same time, Grinnell approached Pro-Tect about installing a fire alarm system in the Overton Building in Forth Worth, Texas. Pro-Tect offered Grinnell a proposal to install a core fire alarm system and then installed the system. During that time, Grinnell bought out Lowe, and he became a Grinnell employee. The motive for Grinnell’s buy-out of Pro-Tect was to garner the huge Mobil fire protection contract.

But according to Lowe’s court suit, as soon as Grinnell got its clutches on the Mobil contract, it forgot about its obligations to pay 10% of the Mobil contract awarded to Lowe’s company. According to Lowe, Grinnell made "false and fraudulent" claims to him as an excuse to delay payment. Then Grinnell paid him $28,806 less than what he was owed.

Grinnell refused to pay a finders fee to a company that had brought Pro-Tect and Grinnell together. Finally, Grinnell fired Lowe before it had to pay him the second half of his bonus for the Mobil contract. Grinnell also stiffed Lowe out of some of his bonuses. And adding insult to injury, Grinnell refused to pay Pro-Tect the final $17,000 for their work on the Overton project, according to Lowe’s cross-complaint. Besides, Lowe claimed, Grinnell still owed him money on two other contracts, for a grand total owed by Grinnell of $177,000 to Lowe. (Case #00-03485 & 00-03485-C)

Javier Vazquez Valles was a real estate developer is southwest Texas with big plans to for some new apartment and office buildings in Juarez and Monterrey, Mexico. In the fall of 1998, an assistant vice president from Grinnell’s parent company, Tyco, approached Valles and offered to help with obtaining financing of his projects. Valles begin recruiting tenants such as Peat Marwick, the international accounting firm now known as KPMG, based on Tyco’s offerings. Abruptly in January of 1999, Tyco bailed out of the projects. Valles was left out to dry, looking like a fool. He sued Tyco and Grinnell, for fraud because of his lost expenses and the damage to his reputation caused by the failed deal. According to court documents, he charged that Tyco/Grinnell: "Fail(ed) to properly supervise its employees, representatives and agents, ... misrepresent(ed) the ability and capability of (Tyco/Grinnell) to provide certain services, ... and other acts of negligence ... (Tyco/Grinnell) ... have engaged in a conspiracy to defraud and commit torts against the Plaintiff." (Case #2000-3351)

This case began with a narrowly averted tragedy, this time at the Community Multicare Center Nursing Home in Fairfield, Ohio. This time, the complaint against Grinnell’s failed fire protection system arose not from a fire, but from a deluge of water from broken piping. According to the lawsuit, the elderly tenants of this nursing received quite a shock in January 1999 when the overhead sprinkler system froze and burst, because the system was not properly drained just three months earlier during an inspection. As a result of the property damage, Monroe Guaranty Insurance Company won an $83,436 judgment against Grinnell. Grinnell appealed the judgment, after first failing to provide a defense. (Case #CV2000-09-2085)

Cheryl McIntyre, Yvonne Dann, and Morgan Coggswell were injured by a release of halogen gas from a fire protection system at the Anchorage, Alaska Court House. The incident occurred while Grinnell and Alaska General were examining the system because of recent false alarms. The injured people sued Grinnell Corporation, who in turn sued Alaska General Alarm asking them to pay part of the damages, according to original lawsuit. (Case #S-8318)