State College company sued for more than $29,000

A State College business has been sued for $29,001 stemming from alleged negligence and breach of contract.

Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, a Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, recently filed the suit against Goodco Mechanical.

The suit’s origins were traced back to 2014 when Goodco Mechanical installed new heating and cooling equipment in Bellefonte at Big Spring Spirits, which is insured by OCIC. The distillery reported multiple temperature sensor alarms to Goodco Mechanical from August 2014 to February 2016, according to the suit, and low refrigerant pressure alarms from December 2015 to February 2016.

The suit said that Big Spring Spirits “paid good and valuable consideration” to Goodco Mechanical in exchange for safe and effective HVAC mechanical services, but that there was a breach of contract.

“Goodco Mechanical, along with our insurance company, have been working with Big Spring Spirits and Liberty Mutual in an effort to correct the issues regarding the chiller,” Scott Goodco said in a statement.”

“An independent engineer was hired by our insurance company to review the entire process from installation to repair and have concluded that Goodco Mechanical technicians were not responsible for the determination or inputting of the system control parameters. No proof or documentation exists that controller settings were modified by Goodco technicians after system start-up. Goodco has cooperated throughout the entire process in an effort to minimize the impact of the chiller failure for Big Spring Spirits and regret any inconvenience caused.”

Goodco Mechanical was on the site in February 2016 and observed water within the refrigerant circuit No. 2 and the corresponding compressor, according to the suit. The lawsuit did not say whether Goodco Mechanical responded to the site earlier than February 2016. Further inspection revealed damage to the chiller stemming from a breach between the water loop and refrigerant circuit No. 2, which was caused by water freezing in the evaporator, according the suit.

Documents alleged that the machine’s issues were due to defective and negligent installation and repair of the chiller. The suit also said this caused “serious and foreseeable risk of harm to persons and property created by “negligent, careless conduct.”

Liberty Mutual is also suing for costs of suit, counsel fees and further costs the the court deems appropriate in addition to the specified amount of $29,001 for damages to the property per the policy of insurance.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 12:47 AM with the headline "State College company sued for more than $29,000."