The Hunt County Commissioners Court voted Wednesday to accept settlement agreements with five defendants in the county’s lawsuit regarding the construction of the Hunt County Criminal Justice Center.
A state district judge also ruled against a final defendant Wednesday, bringing to a close the county’s almost six-year-old litigation in connection with the jail.
A separate suit, filed by a Hunt County Jail employee who claimed she was injured as a result of structural problems with the facility, remains pending.
In all, Hunt County is set to receive $3.85 million dollars as the result of settlements of the lawsuit. The commissioners voted during Wednesday’s session to accept a total of $2.65 million in settlements from JT Turner Construction, Quantum Contracting, M. Hannah Construction, Concrete Walls, and Baird and Hampton & Brown.
The commissioners had previously approved a $265,000 settlement agreement with Frank W. Neal & Associates, the structural engineers on the jail project; a settlement of $770,000 from Burns Architecture Incorporated, the architects involved with the construction of the jail; and $165,000 from Don Burden & Associates of Dallas. The suit had alleged Don Burden failed to properly install plumbing at the jail.
Judge Joe Leonard with the 196th District Court also entered a default judgment Wednesday against the remaining defendant, ADJ Services, Inc. , for $20.9 million, although it was uncertain when, or if, the county would ever be able to collect on the judgment.
Hunt County formally filed suit in January 2009, arguing the firms involved with the jail’s design and construction failed to adhere to warnings the structure was being built on unstable soil. The building has reportedly experienced numerous problems with cracks in the walls and other damage since shortly after it opened.
The commissioners also directed Scott & Ray, PLLC – the county’s civil attorneys – to issue a report that provides a detailed narrative of the acts and omissions that led to the construction deficiencies in the Hunt County Jail building and the filing of the subsequent lawsuit.
Mary Bruner filed a plea in intervention in the same suit in January 2010, against all of the same defendants which had been the basis of the county’s lawsuit. Bruner had filed a petition arguing that she was hurt while working at the jail, allegedly due to defects associated with the reported problems with the jail’s construction. Bruner claimed that on Jan. 18, 2008, two prisoners under the direction of a fellow jailer pushed open a door which had been stuck due to the foundation underneath the jail having failed. The door hit Bruner, causing her injury.
Both the county and the defendants have since filed a motion to sever Bruner’s case, which remained pending as of Wednesday evening.