City files suit
By Carolyn Roy, carolyn@natchitochestimes.com
The City of Natchitoches has sued Sherwin-Williams Co., for breach of warranty over leaks in a flat portion of the roof on the Natchitoches Events Center that was repaired in 2012. City Chief-of-Staff Edd Lee said the suit is not against the local Sherwin-Williams store. The suit, filed Nov. 14, says that in 2012, the City determined the best option was to replace the existing affected area of the roof with the Uniflex Industrial Coating System, a product sold by Sherwin-Williams Co.
According to Lee, the City hired RDS Construction to do the work because that company was the most knowledgeable of the building since it constructed the center from the ground up. RDS hired a sub contractor, Roof Recovery and Restoration, to do the work. The materials used for the work were purchased through Sherwin-Williams and had a 20-year warranty.
The City is suing to get Sherwin-Williams to stand behind their warranty. The City paid $2,500 for the warranty at the time the work was performed in 2012. The suit says that section of the events center roof has leaked on a frequent basis since the roof material was installed and Sherwin-Williams has made numerous unsuccessful efforts to prevent the leaks. Chris Post, acting on behalf of the City, notified Sherwin-Williams in September of this year by email that the roof was leaking and sent him a video of the leaks. Post is an employee of the company that operates the events center.
Keith Burns of Sherwin-Williams responded by email that he would “…get with Jim Baker and see when he is available to be back on site…” The suit says no representative of Sherwin-Williams has contacted the City, nor made repairs to the roof that continues to leak.
The City is asking for damages sufficient to replace the affected area. The City is represented by Corkern, Crews, Guillet & Johnson LLC.