Waubonsee sues two contractors over HVAC system at Aurora campus
Waubonsee Community College has sued two contractors for damages, arguing the installation and design of an HVAC system at the Aurora campus was faulty and failing before the college had to shell out $539,000 to fix it.
The lawsuit, filed in Kane County in late March, accuses Johnson Controls Inc. and Aurora-based Cordogan Clark & Associates of breach of contract.
The college erected a 132,000-square-foot building at 18 S. River St. and in June 2011 moved in. Since then, according to the lawsuit, the air conditioning system has failed to do its job.
"Since the date of occupancy in June of 2011 to the present, the cooling system has experienced at least nine such compressor failures resulting in inadequate and deficient cooling of the campus resulting in substantial economic loss to the college in replacing the same," read part of the lawsuit, which contends the system "never operated as intended or contracted for."
The lawsuit states both defendants "acknowledged that the cooling system as installed did not meet design performance specifications and needed to be replaced." The lawsuit further states that the bid for the new system designed by Cordon Clark & Associates and Johnson Controls' amounted to $539,000.
One unsuccessful remedy suggested by the defendants was to run the heating and cooling systems at the same time, according to the lawsuit. That step also failed to correct the problem.
Messages left at Cordogan Clark & Associates and the Chicago office of Johnson Controls were not returned.
Messages left with Jessica Briney, the primary lawyer for the college in the lawsuit, and Waubonsee spokeswoman Amanda Geist, were not immediately returned.
Waubonsee seeks unspecified damages. The next court date is June 6.