FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – The Freehold Township K-8 School District Board of Education has reached a settlement with a roofing company regarding payments the board allegedly owed to the business.
On Aug. 29, the board approved a settlement agreement and a mutual claim release between and among Roof Management Inc., the board, the architectural firm of Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie, PC, and John J. Veisz, the president of Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie.
Roof Management took legal action against the board and the architectural firm in 2016 regarding a roofing project it performed for the district.
According to the firm’s complaint, which was filed by attorney Jeffrey Rea in state Superior Court, the board entered into a contract with Roof Management in 2015 for a library roof replacement and related work at the Barkalow Middle School and work at the Joseph J. Catena Elementary School.
The complaint states the board agreed to pay $161,400 for the project, which both parties agreed to adjust to $151,400.
As alleged in the complaint, Roof Management completed its obligations in the contract to receive remittance of a substantial completion payment of $19,980 and was entitled to receive a final payment of $11,625. The complaint asserted that the board violated the contract by failing to pay the contractor the substantial completion and final completion payments, a total of $31,605.
Veisz and his firm were named in the complaint because they allegedly abused their authority as the project’s architect of record by acting in an arbitrary, capricious and/or malicious manner adverse to Roof Management’s contractual rights.
The complaint alleged that the architectural firm and/or Veisz rescinded the approval of Roof Management’s substantial completion payment and reduced the amount to $950 out of personal avarice.
Additionally, the complaint alleged that Veisz and his firm continued to act in an arbitrary, capricious, malicious and/or grossly negligent manner by refusing to approve the $19,980 substantial completion payment and refusing to review and approve the $11,625 final completion payment, as well as failing and refusing to issue a certificate of final payment.
Roof Management sought $31,605 from the board for an alleged contract breach, $31,605 from the board for allegedly violating the New Jersey Prompt Payment Act and judgment by way of intentional tort and/or gross negligence against the architectural firm and Veisz for alleged damages sustained by Roof Management, as well as interest, costs of suit, counsel fees and other relief deemed just by the court.
According to the settlement that was approved by board, all of the parties wanted to resolve all of the disputes without acknowledging and expressly denying any liability to the claims, counterclaims, cross-claims and/or other affirmative relief asserted in the legal action to one another.
As stated in the settlement, the parties agreed that the remaining unpaid balance to Roof Management was $48,725. The school board will pay $24,952.27 to Roof Management and the remaining $23,772.73 will be paid by Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie.