Quincy School Board authorizes lawsuit against engineering, construction companies for faulty HVAC installation

QUINCY — The Quincy School Board on Friday voted to authorize a St. Louis firm to file a lawsuit against Klingner and Associates, a Quincy engineering firm, and Maas Construction, a general contractor, for faulty work done with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at Lincoln-Douglas Elementary School, 3211 Payson Road.

The suit, which will be filed in Adams County Circuit Court, contains separate counts of breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation against Klingner and Associates and Maas Construction, plus counts of negligence and breach of implied warranty of workmanship against the two companies and one count of breach of express warranty against Maas Construction.

The School Board vote was 4-0, with Curtis Sethaler and Damion Dodd abstaining. LaTonya Brock was absent from the meeting.

The suit, prepared for the Quincy School District by Jonathan Waldron with Stinson, LLP, asks to recover damages in excess of $50,000 “to be determined at trial” for each count. It also asks for:

• Damages to personal property in Lincoln-Douglas due to refrigerant leaks;
• Costs for rip and tear work to investigate the cause of the HVAC mechanical systems failures, including the cost of an emergency pipe project performed by St. Louis-based Thermal Mechanics, Inc. (TMI);
• Costs to repair defective work; 
• Costs to perform remedial and cleanup work, including rip and tear work of adjacent or “other property” and “other work” necessary to access and complete the remedial work, and costs to inspect and obtain estimates and permits for repairing the defective HVAC mechanical system.
• Costs to repair and/or replace the defective HVAC mechanical systems;
• Diminution of the fair market value of Lincoln-Douglas;
• Costs to repair or replace personal property and other components of the building damaged by the HVAC system’s failures;
• Increased utility costs associated with the underperforming HVAC mechanical systems;
• Costs associated with the remedial efforts, including supplemental heat and cooling provided to mitigate the negative effects of the underperforming systems; 
• Costs to repair, replace and/or permanently supplement defectively designed HVAC mechanical systems, including any of their components, and any increased future operating costs associated with any alternative permanent systems installed to mitigate replacement damages;
• Costs associated with reduced expected service life of the HVAC mechanical systems resulting from defectively designed HVAC mechanical components or systems.

“While it’s not an easy part of this position that we have, besides keeping a focus on teachers and students learning, we also have a responsibility to our taxpayers,” Quincy School Board President Shelley Arns said after a special Friday morning meeting at district offices. “It’s important that when a district seeks out vendors for services, systems and construction projects that the taxpayers get what they paid for.”

A copy of the complaint prepared by Stinson to be filed in Adams County Circuit Court was given to media members after Friday morning’s meeting.

The Quincy School District paid $1,805,014 to Klingner and Associates to conduct a bidding process for a general contractor and subcontractors to construct and install the HVAC mechanical systems at Lincoln-Douglas. The lawsuit alleges Klingner failed to perform several of its design and engineering duties, including the failure to properly design and engineer the HVAC mechanical systems free from defects and for failing to properly oversee construction and installation.

The Quincy School District paid Maas Construction $13,093,316 as the general contractor for the Lincoln-Douglas project. The lawsuit alleges Maas failed to perform several of its duties, including the construction, installation and selection of materials of the HVAC mechanical systems in a “competent and workmanlike manner.”

“Maas’ failure to perform its obligations under the contract has forced the plaintiff to expend substantial time and resources and incur significant expense, which would  not have occurred had Maas fully performed its obligations,” the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit alleges Klingner and Maas violated the version of the 2006 International Building Code, adopted by the city of Quincy, requiring standards of workmanship and acceptability of all work and required permits.

Lincoln-Douglas was one of five new K-5 elementary schools that were built as the result of voters approving an $89 million referendum in November 2014. The building opened in August 2017 as a K-3 building and has served as a K-5 building since the 2018-19 school year.

The lawsuit says issues with the HVAC systems at Lincoln-Douglas first surfaced in January 2024 when Quincy experienced below-freezing temperatures, and the HVAC systems at all five of the new elementary schools failed. Temperatures dropped to the low 50s at the time.

The district says the elementary schools experienced 21 HVAC compressor failures, with nine of them happening at Lincoln-Douglas. Ceiling tiles were soaked by freon leaks from the HVAC systems.

School officials notified Klingner and Associates and Maas Construction of the issues, asking for the issues to be corrected.

“Unfortunately, that did not happen, necessitating this lawsuit,” the lawsuit read.

School officials hired Thermal Mechanics to investigate the cause of the failures of the HVAC system at Lincoln-Douglas and learned that it suffered from “latent design and engineering defects, as well as latent construction and installation defects.” 

“While a typical residential HVAC system uses an approximate total of 2-4 pounds of freon refrigerant, in 2024, TMI added hundreds of pounds of freon to the HVAC mechanical systems at Lincoln-Douglas just to try to keep the system hobbling along for a short time before the next leak occurred or the next compressor failed,” the lawsuit said.

One of the heat recovery units developed a major crack in the aluminum piping in late 2024, causing the HVAC system to fail. As TMI made emergency repairs, school officials learned that certain pipe sizes installed did not match the sizes called for by the plans and specifications prepared by Klingner and Maas.

TMI spent time during the winter break of the 2024-25 school year replacing aluminum piping with copper piping. The School Board voted in December 2024 to spend $164,186  for that work. TMI also had to remove and replace non-defective work to access and repair the defective work.

School officials asked Klingner and Associates and Maas Construction on Dec. 18, 2024, to remedy significant issues with the HVAC system before it was forced to go forward with the emergency pipe replacement project.

“Klingner and Maas chose not to step up and investigate or remediate the significant issues with the HVAC mechanical system,” the lawsuit read.

TMI then shared its findings with school officials on Feb. 27. Among them were all systems:

• Had incorrect charge calculations due to piping issues throughout.
• Had major piping violations relative to correct installation procedures as noted in the factory installation manual.
• Had insufficient piping support due to a lack of hangers throughout, putting significant stress on the piping connections and creating many oil traps throughout the system.
• Had insufficient insulation due to faulty workmanship during installation, contributing significantly to premature pipe erosion and failure.

TMI also said three systems had outdoor units installed backwards, and that smaller units on dual module systems were piped together incorrectly.

“At no time did Maas disclose these installation errors (to school officials) during the construction phase or during the years that followed, even after Maas became aware of the specific problems that plagued those systems,” the lawsuit said.

The HVAC mechanical systems have been run at full capacity and on heat mode to get through the winter, increasing utility costs at Lincoln-Douglas. 

“Continually running the HVAC mechanical systems at full capacity decreases the life expectancy of the HVAC mechanical systems, leads to premature compressor failures, higher electrical and heating costs and other problems that reduce performance, efficiency and life expectancy,” the lawsuit read.