Jury sides with defense in breach of contract dispute

A Jackson County jury has sided with a Cass County-based plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractor and an Overland Park-based general contractor in a breach of contract and negligence lawsuit filed by a Kansas City paper products manufacturer over a costly water leak and power outage at its facilities.

Aspen Products, Inc. sued general contractor A.L. Huber, Inc. and subcontractor Central Plumbing Heating & A.C., Inc. in December 2020 over water damage to a 312,700-square-foot building expansion and addition — a $15.25 million project initiated in 2017-18.

Huber blamed the leak on its subcontractor, which acknowledged that it “inadvertently failed to install a pressure-reducing valve (PRV) on the domestic water line and remediated” the issue, said defense attorney Ryan Karaim, who represented the subcontractor.

Roughly four weeks after that incident, a power outage broke out, traced to an electrical short in the manufacturing plant’s main feeder lines (which were buried underground in an area below where the water leak occurred).

Aspen Products investigated the power outage and determined that the electrical short was caused by water that entered the conduits from the flooding incident, according to Karaim.

The two defendants also filed cross-claims against each other, with Central Plumbing dismissing that claim at trial — and the jury siding with that defendant as well on Huber’s cross-claim, Karaim added.

The plaintiff (whose attorney did not respond to requests for comment) sought a combined $5.6 million from both defendants in its final pretrial demand, said Karaim with a final pretrial offer of $2.5 million from the two defendants.

In court, the jury rejected those claims after a five-day trial in early April, even as the plaintiff cited total damages of nearly $12 million, including approximately $774,000 in direct costs related to the power outage; $145,289 in overtime costs related to production issues during the outage; and lost profits of $10.08 million.
St. Charles defense attorney Ted Pashos, who represented Huber, the general contractor, suggested that the four-week interval between the two incidents at Aspen Products hindered its claims.

“I do think the gap in time was a significant hurdle” for the jury, he said.

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Verdict for defendant

Business/commercial (breach of contract, warranty; negligence)

Venue: Jackson County Circuit Court

Case Number/Date: 2016-CV25043/April 8, 2024

Caption: Aspen Products, Inc., v. A.L. Huber, Inc., and Central Plumbing Heating & A.C., Inc.

Plaintiff’s attorney: Taylor Connolly, Brown & James, Kansas City

Defendant’s Attorneys: Theodore Pashos; Pashos Law, St. Charles (for Huber); Ryan Karaim, Franke Schultz & Mullen, Kansas City (for Central Plumbing Heating & A.C.)

Judge: Circuit Judge Adam Caine

Plaintiff’s Experts: Tim Dugan, Semke Forensics, Kansas City (engineering); Wes Wright, Semke Forensics, Kansas City (engineering); William Rogers, John Ward Economics, St. Louis (accounting/damages/economics)

Defendant’s Experts: Eric Drew, IFIC Forensics, Kansas City (engineering); Ghattas Bitar, IFIC Forensics, Kansas City (electrical engineering); Lynn Mitchell, Teaneck, New Jersey (accounting/damages/economics)