Company sues city of Corbin over expo center work

A Lexington based development company is suing the city of Corbin claiming it has not been paid for excavation work performed at the Southeast Kentucky Agriculture and Exposition Center site during construction.

In a civil complaint, filed in Whitley Circuit Court April 8, Rising Sun Developing Company accuses the city of refusing to pay for extra work it had to do at the expo center site because of extra rock it encountered during site preparation. Through Lexington attorney Elizabether Nicholas, Rising Sun says it relied on a geotechnical report, performed by S&ME, a North Carolina company, to bid on concrete work required for the construction of the expo center. The company won the bid and entered into a contract with the city on July 26, 2007.

But Rising Sun "encountered more rock than indicated in S&ME’s Geotechnical Report and encountered rock in locations where no rock was indicated," the lawsuit says. Officials with the company apparently negotiated a price for the extra work with Branscum Construction, a firm that provided construction manager services on the project, and submitted change order requests for the extra work to the city. The company claims it performed the work pursuant to the change orders but that "the City refuses to compensate Rising Sun for its costs incurred…"

S&ME is also a defendant in the suit. Rising Sun claims the company "supplied false information regarding the subsurface conditions" at the site and "failed to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating information regarding the subsurface conditions" in its report. Rising Sun’s attorney says her client submitted a lower bid that necessary to complete the project based on the erroneous information in the report.

Rising Sun is seeking compensation for work performed plus prejudgment and postjudgment interest as well as attorney fees.

No formal response has yet been filed by the city or S&ME.