BENTON – Prairie State Generating and a Kentucky business settled a claim that exterior wall panels at Prairie State’s power plant in Washington County failed.
The power company and panel provider Centria announced an agreement to Senior U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert on March 25.
They followed through with a joint stipulation on March 29.
Files show the plant cost $28 million including $4.6 million for the panels.
Prairie State retained David Schneidewind of Boyle Brasher in Belleville, and he sued Centria in Washington County circuit court in 2018.
The suit claimed general contractor A.C. Dellovade contracted with Centria to design and manufacture panels, and Centria provided a warranty to cover the finishing coat for 20 years.
The panels allegedly started blistering, peeling, cracking, bulging, deteriorating, corroding and rusting in 2017.
A defective finish likely caused the damage, according to the suit.
Prairie State asked Centria to honor the warranty and Centria allegedly failed to repair, repaint, or replace panels.
Centria retained Richard Cromwell of Norfolk, Va., and he removed the suit to district court on the basis of diverse citizenship.
He moved to dismiss it, and brought the motion before Gilbert in 2019.
Cromwell said Prairie State’s testing and analysis showed the panels were improperly stored and moisture got under the finish.
He said the warranty didn’t apply if the paint was improperly stored or installed.
He also said it didn’t apply if the base metal panel rusted.
Gilbert denied the motion, finding Prairie State might recover consequential and incidental damages if the warranty failed of its essential purpose.
He set trial for August 2020.
Prairie State moved to amend its complaint, to enforce a warranty three years older than the one in the complaint.
Centria opposed amendment but Magistrate Judge Gilbert Sison allowed it on Nov. 22, 2019, finding it fell within the scheduling order and discovery hadn’t ended.
“The issues regarding which warranty was controlling in this case is intertwined with the liability issue and it would be premature to rule prior to a formal motion on file that fully addresses these issues,” Sison wrote.
On Dec. 11, 2019, Centria counsel Courtney Schorr of Pittsburgh moved to dismiss the amended complaint.
On Dec. 17, the parties moved to continue trial.
On Jan. 10, 2020, they moved to extend time for Prairie State to respond to Centria’s time motion.
On Jan. 13, Gilbert set trial back four months and extended the response to the motion for 30 days.
He granted three more extensions, setting a June 26 deadline for the third.
On June 23, Prairie State and Centria moved to stay all deadlines for 45 days pending settlement.
They stated that discussions were fruitful and the parties agreed to the general framework of a settlement.
They stated they needed additional time “to finalize specific terms and draft a final, formal settlement agreement.”
It took 45 days times six.
Mark Bauman of Hinshaw and Culbertson in Belleville acted as local counsel with Cromwell and Schorr.
Emily O’Connor, colleague of Schneidewind at Boyle and Brasher, represented Centria along with Andrew Scavotto, John Munich, and Courtney Harrison of the Stinson firm in Clayton, Mo.