Collapsed building owners dispute city’s claim on demo costs
{child_flags:featured}Demolition costs disputed
{child_byline}By Gideon Bradshaw
Staff writer
gbradshaw@observer-reporter.com
{/child_byline}
The owners of a downtown Washington building that partially collapsed over the summer are disputing the more than $1.1 million bill the city claims it’s entitled to recoup for tearing down the structure.
Their attorneys are asking Washington County President Judge Katherine B. Emery to “appropriately reduce, remove or exclude some or all of the costs or charges” the city used to arrive at the figure.
The city filed a writ last month alleging Washington landlord Mark Russo and his sister, Melissa, who lives in Colorado, owe roughly $1.16 million for “costs directly related to the emergency demolition” of the Russos’ three-story apartment building at 15 N. Main St.
The Montgomery Building’s July 12 cave-in trapped a tenant for more than nine hours before rescuers freed her. That day, Emery granted a request by the city to immediately demolish the structure. The judge’s order also allows the city to impose a lien on the property to cover demolition costs.
In an “affidavit of defenses” filed Thursday, Russo attorneys Christian Marquis and Allison Genard alleged the city didn’t provide notice of its intent to perform the demolition so the Russos could hire their own contractor.
The attorneys wrote the International Property Maintenance Code, which the city adopted, required officials to do so, rendering the city’s attempt to recover costs of the work defective.
The Russos’ attorneys called it “premature” for the city to assert the Russos owe the city for bills that haven’t been paid yet.
Most of the amount in question comes from an invoice dated Sept. 26 that Allegheny Crane Rental Inc. submitted to the city. The city included the $1.12 million invoice – without additional details or documentation justifying those charges – as part of last month’s filing.
A letter dated three days later from the heavy-equipment company’s lawyer said the city still owes that amount – not counting “interest or costs of collection” – by Oct. 13, the same day the city filed its writ.
Similarly, the city doesn’t appear to have paid more than $18,000 it listed in its filing for a “Waste Management invoice for debris disposal.”
Marquis and Genard also called the amount allegedly owed to Allegheny Crane “unreasonable, high and not customary or within industry standards given the amount of work performed” and “lacking all sufficient evidentiary support.”
For example, the company’s invoice lists two line items – both for $97,174 – described only as “10 percent profit” and “10 percent overhead,” which the Russos’ lawyers argued “should have already been included in the costs or charges for the work performed and therefore should not be separate line items.”
The city’s solicitor, Jack Cambest, said he hasn’t had a chance to review the building owners’ response. He said he believes the city initiated emergency demolition responsibly.
“Acquiring the court order to do that was the proper procedure,” he said.
Cambest said he and the city’s insurance company are reviewing whether the total cost is on par with the amount of work done.
The Russos’ attorneys pushed back against the city’s attempt to collect more than $12,200 in overtime for police, firefighters and public works employees purportedly related to securing the collapse site, arguing “there is no authority that permits the recovery of these costs or charges that are not actual demolition costs or charges.”
Staff writer Katie Anderson contributed to this report.