$3.7M turfs were supposed to keep Midlands high school fields cool. They don’t, suit says
A Midland school district is suing two companies after it paid a premium rate for a product that the district says failed to keep athletic fields cool as promised.
Richland 2 contracted with Geosurfaces Southeast, a sports surfacing company, in February 2020 and gave it over $3.7 million for synthetic turf installation at four high schools: Blythewood, Spring Valley, Westwood and Richland Northeast.
A lawsuit filed Oct. 4 accuses the company, along with synthetic turf brand TCoolPT, of fraud, negligence and breach of contract
Geosurfaces promised the school district “good and workmanlike” construction services, supplies and products for the project, including an infill material called TCool, for which Richland 2 paid a “premium price” — hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the lawsuit.
The company promised the school district that using TCool would keep the athletic fields 35 to 50 degrees cooler than standard infill products. It also promised that TCool would save Richland 2 additional costs, because the school district would not need to install irrigation systems.
This wasn’t the case, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, the school district found that the synthetic turf fields installed at the four high schools become ”extremely hot.” The lawsuit alleges that the TCool infill product was a “complete failure.”
The school district said it obtained independent testing of the infill product, and determined it was no different than regular infill used at other locations. It either didn’t work, or was never installed.
“None of these conclusions (are) acceptable,” the lawsuit reads.
Richland 2 contacted Geosurfaces Southeast “on several occasions” to request assistance, determine the cause and correct the alleged failure. But the company refused to honor its contractual obligations and its promises to correct the deficient product, according to the lawsuit.
“(T)he Defendants instead have chosen to ignore the District’s multiple claims,” the lawsuit reads.
The school district has also been advised that it does need an irrigation system for each of the four fields, and has allegedly incurred “significant” additional costs to manually water the fields and to keep them cool. According to the lawsuit, it will “continue to suffer numerous damages.”
Richland 2 is seeking damages, attorney’s fees and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
The suit against the Delaware-based company was originally filed in Richland County Common Pleas Court but moved to U.S. District Court on Nov. 27.
A Richland 2 spokesperson declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
Geosurfaces and TCool could not be reached for comment.
