Insurer of KOP property management co. seeks to recover damages from ruptured water valve

An insurer has filed a civil action seeking to recover damages it had to pay

out in claims for a property management company in suburban Philadelphia that says it incurred more than $75,000 in damages due to a faulty water valve at the complex.

Lawyers for the Insurance Company of Greater New York, subrogee of The Westover Companies, which is based in King of Prussia, Montgomery County, filed suit in U.S. District Court on Aug. 16 against Pennsylvania-based Cloud Mechanical Services Inc. and Vernon Bitzer Associates Inc., as well as Delaware-based Greenberg Supply Co. and Massachusetts-based Watts Water Technologies, Inc., over damages that the property management company claims to have sustained two summers ago.

The lawsuit claims that on Aug. 20, 2011, the TEE fitting of the automatic control valve installed on the property failed, causing the valve’s pressure regulator to malfunction, an action that in turn caused the incoming water pressure to greatly increase, resulting in water damage to the property.

The various defendants named in the complaint had a hand in designing, manufacturing, selling, inspecting, servicing and maintaining the automatic pressure valve, the suit states.

The defendants are accused of negligence for designing, assembling, manufacturing, selling, supplying and distributing a product in a defective condition, failing to have adequate warnings on the product, creating a product without simple and cost-effective safety devices, failing to investigate and analyze prior accident information, and other acts of negligence.

The suit contains additional counts of negligent failure to warn, breach of warranty and strict product liability.

The insurance company seeks to recover consequential damages in excess of $75,000, plus compensatory damages that includes loss of rental income and loss of use, as well as pre-and-post-judgment interest and other legal relief.

The plaintiff is being represented by attorneys Albert M. Saltz and Matthew D. Matkov, of the Wayne, Pa. law firm of Saltz Matkov P.C.

 

The federal case number is 2:13-cv-04763-RB.