(The following story by Robert Kelly appeared on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website on August 4, 2009.)
GILLESPIE, Ill. — The school district here is suing the architect of the elementary school in nearby Benld that was wrecked by coal mine subsidence this spring. The district is trying to recover the costs of building a new school and other damages allegedly sustained in the incident.
In addition, the lawsuit filed on Monday seeks millions of dollars in damages from the Union Pacific Railroad, identified in the suit as the successor to the old Chicago and North Western Railroad that owned the Superior Coal Co. which had mined the coal under the Benld school.
The subsidence that ruined the school was caused by the collapse of pillars supporting the old mine beneath.
The suit was filed in Macoupin County Circuit Court at Carlinville. It alleges that the architect, Wight and Co., and the railroad failed to take proper measures to ensure that the 7-year-old school would not be damaged by mine subsidence.
Officials determined that the $9 million school was so extensively damaged in the March subsidence incident that it was unsafe to continue to use. The school’s nearly 700 pupils had to finish the school year at other schools in Gillespie.
The School District is seeking damages it estimates at almost $22 million against the architect and the railroad, and is demanding a jury trial. A hearing date was not set.
A spokesman for Union Pacific, Mark Davis, said railroad officials had yet to study the lawsuit and could not comment on it. A spokesman for Wight and Co., Joshua Robbins, also said officials there had not yet studied the suit and could not comment.
Superintendent Paul Skeans of the Gillespie district referred questions about the suit to the school district’s attorneys, who were unavailable for comment.
The suit says Superior Coal mined the area under the damaged Benld school from 1904 until closing the mine in 1954. The company was owned by the Chicago and North Western Railroad and used the coal as fuel for its trains, the suit says.
Union Pacific bought Chicago and North Western and its assets and liabilities in 1995, according to the lawsuit.
The suit says Superior Coal failed “to provide the surface property owner (the school district) with adequate subjacent support when conducting mining operations.”
The suit also alleges that Wight and Co., as architect of the Benld school, “failed to exercise due care in conducting investigations related to the possible mine subsidence that could or might occur at the location of the proposed new elementary school building.”
The school was built in 2001 and opened in 2002. It was abandoned immediately after the subsidence incident.
School district officials have estimated that it would cost almost $22 million to build an equivalent school today. Insurance will cover just $350,000 of that, district officials have said.
Schools in the Gillespie district will return to normal schedules early in the coming school year, thanks to a $750,000 federal grant that will help lease 27 temporary classrooms, officials announced recently.
Pupils from the closed Benld school had to finish the last school year on a split schedule because of limited classroom space.