SCRANTON – Litigation by a medical center that claimed its landlord failed to repair the sprinkler system in its leased tenant space, leaving it at tremendous risk for physical damage and loss of life in the event of a fire, has been discontinued.
The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education and The Wright Center Medical Group first filed suit in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 24 versus Wyoming Avenue Development, LLC. All parties are of Scranton
“The parties entered into an amended and restated lease agreement dated July 25, 2019, by which the tenants lease approximately 41,900 square feet of space within the landlord’s commercial building located at 501 South Washington Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18505,” the suit stated.
“On Feb. 9, 2021, tenants were made aware that the sprinkler system, the control room of which is located on the first floor of the premises and which system services the first and second floors of the premises, is not properly installed and/or connected and is in need of repair, including, but not necessarily limited to, that the system on the second floor is not connected to the fire alarm system located in the control room and the accelerator on the dry system is defective, will not reset and must be replaced.”
During subsequent discussions between the parties, it is said that the landlord denied any obligation and refused to pay for the necessary repairs. The tenants subsequently sent a letter to the defendant landlord demanding that the system be repaired. Again, the landlord (through its counsel) disavowed any liability and refused to pay for the repairs.
“On Feb. 19, 2021, tenants responded to landlord’s counsel, urging that the landlord take immediate action to initiate, complete and pay for the necessary repairs to the sprinkler system, again referencing Section 5.1 of the lease, the only provision in the lease that references ‘fire protection systems and sprinkler systems’ as clear support and authority that the landlord is response for maintaining, repairing and paying for the cost of necessary repairs to the sprinkler system, subject to the tenants paying a 22.9589 percent proportionate share of such costs,” per the suit.
“Within hours of receiving tenants’ Feb. 19, 2021 letter, landlord hand-delivered to tenants a default notice letter, claiming that tenants were in violation of Section 10 of the lease, and pursuant to the lease, had 20 days to cure the default (by making and paying for the necessary repairs to the sprinkler system). On Feb. 24, 2021, the tenants provided a notice of default letter to the landlord.”
The plaintiff said that the actions of the landlord have “resulted in delay and failure to make necessary repairs to the sprinkler system, as is its obligation under the lease, resulting in clear and ongoing safety risk, which if not corrected, will cause tenants to incur the costs of repairing the sprinkler system, for which they have no obligation under the lease.”
On March 1, the defendant filed an opposing brief to the lawsuit, claiming that the plaintiff was responsible for any improvements to the first floor of the building under the terms of the lease agreement.
“What TWC fails to outline in its petition is that the current issue a direct result of the fact that the contractors that TWC hired to work on the second floor of their demised premises failed to properly install TWC’s sprinkler system,” the brief stated.
“Once Wyoming Avenue was made aware of this concern, it immediately reached out to necessary professionals – specifically Johnson Controls and Beach Lake Sprinkler – to identify the issues and fix the deficiency caused by the contractors TWC hired to make the alterations and improvements on the second floor of the demised premises.”
Furthermore, the defendant said that in “being a responsible landlord”, it also investigated if there was a true safety emergency on its property.
“Wyoming Avenue was informed that the deficiencies, caused by TWC’s faulty installation of improvements, while a concern, would not create an immediate safety issue and that the sprinkler system would still operate and trigger the necessary alarms. The issue does, however, need to be repaired and properly installed for the most efficient fire protection, keeping all tenants and guests on the property safe from harm. The separate sprinkler system that Wyoming Avenue had installed and maintains for the entire building is fully functioning,” the brief said.
The landlord added that it issued the default notice based on TWC’s “refusal to repair and maintain all trade fixtures, alterations, additions and improvements” to the leased property, and that the plaintiff chose to initiate litigation and “abuse the legal process” rather than address the deficiency it allegedly created.
Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas Judge James A. Gibbons found that the defendant was in fact responsible for the sprinkler system repairs at TWC, and issued a preliminary injunction compelling same.
UPDATE
According to a praecipe filing dated June 7, the litigation was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.
“Please mark the above-captioned matter settled and discontinued without prejudice, as to all parties and claims,” the praecipe stated.
The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph Sileo and Teal Gilbert of The Wright Center, in Scranton.
The defendant is represented by John G. Dean and Matthew G. Boyd of Elliott Greenleaf & Dean, also in Scranton.
Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas case 2021-CV-00917
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com