Granite City school district sued over copier, printer lease contract

Seeking nearly $190,000, a Missouri corporation on Monday sued Granite City Community Unit School District No. 9 over an alleged breach of contract.

Suburban Business Products Inc. (SBP), doing business as SBP Image Solutions, filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, claiming the school district breached the parties’ contract for the lease and servicing of digital copiers and printers.

According to the suit, the parties entered into the contract in May 2006, after the school district selected SBP as the winning bidder of a proposal for copying equipment and service for the school years between 2006 and 2011. SBP was awarded the previous five-year contract.

SBP asserts in its suit that it “performed all obligations and conditions required of it under” the contract, but was told by the school district in May 2008 that SBP employees were no longer allowed on district premises to perform maintenance and service to the copying equipment.

“Defendant breached the contract by refusing to allow Plaintiff to perform copier maintenance and service for the remaining term of their contract and allowing a competing copier company to service Plaintiff’s equipment,” the suit states.

SBP also claims that the school district “further breached the contract by refusing to make quarterly payments in the amount of $10,965.00, due and owing under the remaining term of the contract,” a breach that caused damages to SBP in the amount of $158,249.85.

In addition to that amount, SBP asserts that the school district owes it $22,711.60 for exceeding the contractual allowance of copies. The contract, the suit states, allowed the school district 10,200,000 copies annually.

It exceeded that amount by about 5,281,768 copies, according to the complaint that notes the contract provided additional copies would cost .0043 per copy.

SBP also seeks another $5,495 for damage to one of the copiers. The suit claims that one of the copiers leased under the contract “was no longer in working order when retrieved.”

SBP’s complaint includes counts for breach of contract, suit on account and breach of contract in relation to damage to leased equipment. It seeks of a total of $189,263.05, as well as interest at a rate of five percent from July 2011 and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Mark Silvermintz of The Kunin Law Offices in Collinsville submitted the complaint on SBP’s behalf.