Budget for Litigating Sinking Tower Lawsuits Increased
February 8, 2018
As we first reported last week, plans to permanently right the sinking Millennium Tower are about to be tested and should be completed by the end of July.
At the same time, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) has just increased their legal budget related to the litigation of who’s responsible for causing the tower’s excess sinking and lean from $3.5 million to $5.7 million with the anticipation of future increases “as the need arises.”
Keep in mind that the TJPA’s contract with Jones Day for litigation support was signed at the end of 2016, with an initial five-year term and an option to extend for another three, as we first reported at the time.
And once again, in terms of who’s going to foot the growing legal bills: “It is anticipated that the costs of the 301 Mission litigation will be paid or reimbursed by insurance companies for the TJPA’s contractors and/or by the contractors themselves with a duty to indemnify TJPA,” at least in the eyes of the TJPA.
Comments from Plugged-In Readers
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What a mess.
Great photo of the Millenium Tower in Taipei in the press this morning.
(Oh relax, it’s joke. I mean, the same thing wouldn’t happen here, right? Right?….)
My initial thought was: Wow! all that from a 5.7. Then I noticed it was actually an aftershock from a 6.4 the day earlier, so they get….well, a lesser reprimand, I guess.
Or they’re not built to modern standards.
The Millennium tower is clearly not built to modern standards either – else it would not be leaning so much. Hopefully they will fix it before we have a big earthquake and people get squished.
Seriously, if TJPA prevails they (or the insurance company) should counter sue for damages.
I can’t see how a building which started sinking and leaning before the wrecking ball even came for the old terminal can get any damages from it’s reconstruction, other than through jurisprudential fatigue.
All buildings sink and lean. If you change density of the soil beneath a building by de-watering an adjacent parcel, you can accelerate/worsen the projected compression. Don’t worry – California taxpayers will wind up on the hook one way or another.
Most new buildings neither sink or lean. Especially skyscrapers downtown.
Poorly constructed buildings sink and/or lean.
I’m sure Erlich Bachman (aka Backmanity) meant that new buildings settle.
UPDATE: Transbay Budget for Sinking Tower Litigation Nears $16 Million