Source: http://lancasteronline.com, March 21, 2016
By: Tim Stuhldreher
Seeking compensation for “multi-million dollar losses and damages,” Manheim Central School District has filed a lawsuit against the architecture firm that designed the now-razed Doe Run Elementary School.
Foreman Architects-Engineers’ design was faulty and the firm failed to disclose the problem in a follow-up investigation, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit filed in county court last week accuses the firm of breach of contract, malpractice, misrepresentation and fraud.
Also named in the suit are the company’s president and vice-president, Phillip G. and David E. Foreman.
It says the Doe Run school’s structural design did not include appropriate provisions for handling lateral stresses, such as a “shear wall,” making the school vulnerable to ground motion or high winds.
“As a result, the school building was structurally unsound, and subject to cracking and potential collapse,” the suit says.
In compensation, the lawsuit seeks payment for the costs of initial construction, the investigations into the problems, Doe Run’s demolition and the design of its replacement.
Manheim Central also is seeking punitive damages and reimbursement of its legal costs.
Foreman Architects-Engineers is based in Zelienople, near Pittsburgh, and has an office in Akron.
Reached Friday, Phillip Foreman said he doesn’t understand why the school district is pursuing legal action, calling it a “very strange situation.”
“The building stood there for 25 years,” he said.
His firm did not design the structural system, he said. Nor did his firm have an opportunity to review the engineering studies that the district relied on when it decided to tear down the school, he said.
The suit claims the Foreman company was contractually responsible for all of Doe Run’s “architectural and structural elements, systems and materials,” including aspects subcontracted to other firms.
Foreman said he has not yet seen the lawsuit. Though it was filed in court, official service to the defendants had not taken place as of midday Friday.

The school district directed inquiries to its solicitor, Carl Beard of Altoona firm Andrews & Beard. Beard did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
The Doe Run school was built for $8.8 million and substantially completed in late 1992. By 1994, the lawsuit says, masonry cracks had appeared, and the Foreman firm was called in.
The firm inspected the school and assured the district by letter that the cracks were “not of structural concern.”
However, in October 2014, while conducting preliminary studies for possible additions and renovations, an engineer examined Doe Run and concluded it was structurally unsound and unsafe.
On his recommendation, it was evacuated at once. The district says it and its insurer obtained additional expert evaluations that confirmed the initial one, giving it no choice but to demolish Doe Run. Demolition commenced in December 2015.
The district plans to build a new school at the site. It plans to receive bids this month — the deadline was extended a week, to Wednesday, March 23 —and hopes to start construction this spring.