The Ohio School Facilities Commission and an architect will pay a contractor $2 million to settle breach-of-contract claims stemming from the construction of student housing at the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that an Ohio Court of Claims judge approved the settlement after a referee ruled in favor of TransAmerica Building Co.
The company had argued that the commission “continually delayed and disrupted” its work and caused extra work beyond the scope of its contract.
TransAmerica will receive $2.036 million and at least $32,771 in accrued interest. The commission will be responsible if the project architect, Steed Hammond Paul, fails to pay $971,700 of the total owed.
The court referee, Samuel Wampler, ruled last year that TransAmerica was owed the money because the state agency dragged out the four-year, $44 million construction project to five to six years because of "politics and budgeting problems."
The project construction manager and architect, Wampler found, were guilty of "heavy-handed and misleading conduct," and he found that the architect placed an unlicensed person in charge of administration of the contract.
