PITTSBURGH – The parent company of Pottery Barn brought legal action in state court over allegations that an adjoining hamburger restaurant leaked both water and sewage into one of its mall stores in Mount Lebanon.
Williams-Sonoma Stores, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Aug. 3 versus BRGR Management, LLC of Lansdale and SRG Cranberry, LLC, of Pittsburgh.
The plaintiff says its brand Pottery Barn leased and operated a retail store in the Galleria mall, located in Mount Lebanon. Adjoining the Pottery Barn store was BRGR, a gourmet hamburger restaurant, also located in the Galleria.
“On Sept. 22, 2018 and on multiple subsequent occasions [including Dec. 28, 2018], the Pottery Barn store suffered leaks into its premises from defendants’ restaurant. As a result of the repeated flooding, the Pottery Barn store was damaged by sewage, water and other contaminants that were leaking and/or flooding into the store from defendants’ property and/or from a space over which defendants had exclusive control,” the suit states.
“As a result of the leaks, the Pottery Barn store incurred substantial damages in cleanup, repair, lost merchandise and interruption to its business and lost profits. The leaks were caused and/or allowed to occur due to the negligence and carelessness of defendants and its agents and employees.”
The plaintiff claims that even after repeated notice, the defendants were knowingly negligent and reckless when it came to the maintenance and repair of the restaurant’s plumbing system, leading the sewage, water and other contaminants to leak into the Pottery Barn store and cause damages totaling more than $266,000.
For multiple counts of negligence, nuisance, trespass, the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $266,444.99, attorney’s fees, costs, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest and such additional and further relief as the Court deems just and proper, plus a trial by jury.
The plaintiff is represented by Kathleen A. Segmiller of Segmiller & Associates, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants have not yet obtained legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-20-008237
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com