Columbia-area district settles lawsuit against contractor for high school turf field work (2024)

COLUMBIA — Richland Two has settled a lawsuit against companies it accused of negligence, fraud and a breach of contract related to work on synthetic turf athletic fields at four of the northeast Richland district’s high schools.

The October 2023 lawsuit targeted Geosurfaces Southeast, a part of the turf company TenCate with whom Richland Two says it contracted with to install synthetic turf fields at Blythewood, Spring Valley, Westwood and Richland Northeast high schools for more than $3.7 million in 2020.

That installation was supposed to include the use of an infill product called TCool, the district’s complaint said. It was supposed to keep the fields 35 to 50 degrees cooler than regular infill, the granular product that goes on top of artificial turf.

Instead, the lawsuit alleged 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.

Richland Two argued that either the TCool product was not actually installed on the fields, it was defective or it didn’t meet the contractors’ promised specifications. Independent testing of the four fields’ infill determined that it was “no different” than the infill used on other fields, which were not TCool products, the lawsuit asserts.

The district was also told that it now needs to install an irrigation system in the four fields to help keep them cool, the lawsuit said.

Companies TCoolPT and TCoolPT Distribution were also named as defendants.

The defendants never filed a response to the lawsuit, which was moved from Richland County court to federal court in November.

Under a settlement agreement signed in July and acquired by The Post and Courier through a public records request, Geosurfaces Southeast will pay all the costs of a contract with a landscaping company to install the irrigation systems.

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.”

It’s unclear exactly how much money the settlement includes. Neither the agreement document nor the attached landscaping plans include a cost total.

The district’s school board voted to approve the settlement July 9.

A Richland Two spokeswoman declined to comment on the settlement or lawsuit. Attorneys for the defendant companies did not respond to the paper’s request for comment.

The suit was dismissed in July, according to court records.