Jackson school district appeals latest ruling in Total Electric lawsuit

Jackson R-2 School District has appealed a recent local court ruling in a long-running lawsuit over the district's events center.

Counsel for the district filed the appeal to the Eastern District of the state Court of Appeals on Thursday.

The appeal argues 32nd Judicial District Judge Benjamin Lewis incorrectly ruled how interest should be calculated on an earlier judgment in the case and should have deemed the district's debt paid in full because of a payment earlier this year. Court documents say the district will likely raise two issues:

• "Whether the circuit court erred in overruling the school district's motion for an order showing satisfaction of the final judgment by requiring 'interest at the rate of 18% per annum, compounded monthly', instead of 'interest at the rate of one and one half percent (1 1/2%) per month' stated in the plain language of the final judgment."
• "Whether the circuit court erred in overruling the school district's motion for an order showing satisfaction of the final judgment by requiring payment of additional interest on top of the Prompt Pay penalty interest paid by the school district because the Prompt Payment Act ... contains no language compounding its interest rate."

The case stems from a construction project that dates to 2006.

The project spawned two lawsuits -- one involving Penzel Construction of Jackson, general contractor for the project, and roofing issues, and the other involving the electrical contractor for the project, Total Electric of Farmington, Missouri. The portion of the suit involving the roof issues concluded years ago, with the school district paying about $1.2 million.

The Total Electric portion, however, has dragged on for years. A local jury awarded Total Electric $800,000 in its original judgment in 2010. The district did not pay the judgment, appealing the verdict, and starting the clock on interest penalties. Courts later found -- and upheld on appeal -- that the district violated the state's Prompt Pay Act, which implements financial penalties for failure to pay judgments.

Merideth Pobst, communications director for the school district, said district officials were on break Friday and would return next week.

$10 million potential outlay

The district has paid Total Electric about $4.5 million since January, though Danny Miller, chief operations officer of Total Electric, contends the district still owes about $5 million in interest and penalties.

All combined, if courts uphold the monthly compounded interest Miller is seeking, the Total Electric lawsuit would cost the district about $10 million.

Miller said Friday that amount could have been substantially less. He outlined several mediation and negotiation attempts over the years that were not fruitful, including one in which Miller said he offered to settle the suit for $1 million. School district officials countered with an offer of $20,000, Miller said.

Miller said he has met with all three Jackson superintendents -- Ron Anderson, John Link and Scott Smith -- during whose tenure the suit has existed. None of those meetings produced a result Miller found acceptable, and he ascribed a hardball motive to the district's continued appeals.

"They went through this strictly to drive up my cost to where I would go broke and stop, but I'm a little hard-headed," he said. "I'm not smart enough to quit."