After accepting short settlement dollars from the
construction manager and contractor this week’s jury verdict ultimately determined
were actually responsible for cracks in the walls at the 15.5 billion gallon Bill Young Resorvoir at Lithnia,
Florida, and then rejecting a $30 million settlement offer from the design
engineer in favor of taking their case to trial, Tampa Bay Water officials
still refuse to accept responsibility for their own bad calls respecting construction
of the project. TBW board member and Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra
Murman is quoted as complaining that “Jurors couldn’t see that in the end that
they’re going to have to pay for a mistake that they don’t see as a mistake.”
TBW’s board is apparently
committed to spending $162 million on the renovation and expansion of the six
year old retaining basin, in addition to the expense of $10.6 million in its
own legal fees for the trial, plus the $13 million to $18 million in legal fees
of HDR Engineering, exonerated by the jury verdict, which loser TBW is
contractually required to pay. Accordingly, rejection of the $30 million HDR
settlement offer will cost water ratepayers of TBW as much as an additional $1.20
per month. The fact that TBW board members thought $1.20 per month could bribe
federal court jurors to influence their verdict in a month long trial is
utterly astonishing.
Though TBW board members refuse to
acknowledge it, the “mistake” in this legal proceeding was their own
determination to settle for short money from one set of parties presumably at
least partly responsible for the reservoir failure, in the form of improper
soil placement during construction, and proceed to trial only against the
designer, after rejecting the engineering firm’s reasonable settlement offer.
Any lawyer experienced in the trial of construction disputes will tell clients
that there are only two truths respecting juries: their verdicts are always
unpredictable, but they usually do the right thing. TBW board members decided
to take a crap shoot in this case, and have only themselves to blame when the
dice came up snake eyes.
