The lawsuit between the school district Richland Two in Columbia, USA, and Geosurfaces Southeast has been settled. Richland Two claimed that the cooling capacity of the performance infill the contractor initially had claimed did not come close to reality.

Richland Two serves around 28,800 students in northeast Richland County and had accused Geosurfaces Southeast of negligence, fraud and a breach of contract. The claims related to work on synthetic turf athletic fields at four of the northeast Richland district’s high schools. In 2020, the contract was valued at USD 3.7 million. Sportsfields.info first wrote about this case in October last year.

Richland Two was particularly upset about the use of TCool, an infill which Geosurfaces Southeast claimed would keep the fields between 1.5 to 5 degrees Celsius cooler than regular performance infill.

Geosurfaces Southeast is part of TenCate Grass.

However, Richland Two claimed that the turf fields became “extremely hot,” even after the “premium price” of the TCool product upgrade cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Independently verified

Richland Two argued that either the TCool product was not actually installed, was defective or didn’t meet the specifications the contractor had promised. A test by an independent testing company determined that the infill used was similar to the infill used on other fields.

These fields had not been finished with TCool products, the lawsuit asserts.

According to legal documents, Richland Two claimed that it now needs to install an irrigation system in all four fields to help keep them cool.

Not disputed

Richland Two had also called up TCoolPT and TCoolPT Distribution, the companies that actually supply the product. Neither company bothered to file a response, which is why the lawsuit was moved from Richland County Court to the federal court in November last year.

According to a local newspaper, Geosurfaces Southeast has signed a settlement agreement to pay all the costs of a contract with a landscaping company to install the irrigation system.

The settlement agreement specifies that it does not include any admission of fault or liability, and that all of the lawsuit’s parties “deny any and all wrongdoing.”