District wins lawsuit; athletic bond still failing

Published 2:28 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

CARNATION _ The month of November may turn out to be a

mixed blessing for Riverview School District No. 407.

According to the latest figures from the King County Records

and Elections Division, the district’s proposed $2.995 million bond to build

an athletic field and track at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall was failing

by less than four tenths of a percent. To be approved, the district needed

a supermajority, or 60 percent, of voters to OK the measure. As of Nov.

17, the measure had garnered 59.64 percent of the vote.

Final vote totals will be available Nov. 22 from the Records and

Elections Division.

But earlier in the month, the school district won a drawn-out legal

victory against the Georgia-based company that manufactured the Cedarcrest

High School roof and the architectural firm that designed it. On Nov. 2, a

jury awarded the district $1.2 million.

Riverview Assistant Superintendent Michael Green said the

district was more than happy with the jury’s decision.

“Elated would be the best word for it. I wasn’t surprised, though,” he said.

“It was obvious that we were a victim and not responsible for anything.”

In late 1998, the school district filed its lawsuit against

Loadmaster Systems Inc. of Norcross, Ga., and Burr Lawrence Rising + Bates

Architects of Tacoma in King County Superior Court. The trial lasted 20

days throughout the month of October, and the jury deliberated for several

hours before making its decision.

The roof the district had installed on Cedarcrest High School was

made of a steel deck, foam boards and a material like sheetrock that served

as the shingles. Green said it was the first roof the company manufactured for

a building in the Pacific Northwest, but since the construction of

Cedarcrest High School in 1994, other schools have contracted with the company.

And like Riverview, those other districts have witnessed problems.

“We know that there are failures of roofs in both the Kent and

Issaquah school districts that came out after our roof,” Green said.

The crux of the district’s lawsuit hinged upon the type of nail used

to install the roof. According to Green, the nail allowed pockets to form

where water could collect, which ruined portions of the roof.

Amid the frequent rains found west of the Cascades, water

“very slowly saturated large areas of that roof,” he said.

During the jury’s deliberations, members had to answer 19

questions before making their decision. Some of the questions include: Did

Loadmaster Systems Inc. breach an implied warranty that the roof-deck system

was fit for a particular purpose? [12 out of 12 jurors said yes] Was

[Burr Lawrence Rising + Bates Architects] negligent in its design of the

roofing system? [10 of 12 jurors said yes]

The jury then assigned Loadmaster 76 percent fault in the matter

while finding Burr Lawrence Rising + Bates Architects 24 percent at fault. It

also decided that Loadmaster had violated the state Consumer Protection

Act, which forces the company to pay the district’s legal expenses.

Depending on whether the two companies file an appeal, the

school district could see the money as early as January. Green said if

Riverview received the money before the end of school, it would start replacing

the roof over Cedarcrest High School next summer with a “membrane-like”

material impervious to water. He added the work would be completed

before the start of the 2001-2002 school year.

Both companies have 30 day from the jury’s decision to file an appeal.