Trial ordered for Superman building owner’s lawsuit against Bank of America

A TRIAL date will be set in the lawsuit that High Rock Westminster Street LLC filed against former Superman building tenant Bank of America. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ RUPERT WHITELEY
A TRIAL date will be set in the lawsuit that High Rock Westminster Street LLC filed against former Superman building tenant Bank of America. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ RUPERT WHITELEY

PROVIDENCE – A trial date will be set in the lawsuit that High Rock Westminster Street LLC filed against former Industrial Trust Co. building tenant Bank of America, according to a Sept. 7 order from U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith.
High Rock filed suit against Bank of America in July 2013, asking for millions in damages from the bank. It alleged the bank left the 26-story art deco building at 111 Westminster St., known as the “Superman building,” with “crumbling facades, corroded window frames and obsolete building systems.”
High Rock said Bank of America, which left the building in 2013, “failed to meet its maintenance and repair obligations” for the structure’s facade, electrical distribution system and heating and cooling systems, and “left so much furniture in the building that BOA was effectively a holdover tenant liable for rental payments.”
However, the decision from Smith states that the “plain language of the lease gave BOA discretion to leave the furnishings in the building and in exercising this discretion, BOA did not become a holdover tenant.” High Rock, according to the decision, also is abandoning its lost rental income claim.
High Rock also said BOA failed to remove asbestos as required under the lease, but the judge denied that claim.
BOA contends that it returned the building in the same condition as when it started the lease in 2003.
Smith, in his decision, wrote that the case will proceed to a jury to determine whether BOA maintained the building as Class B office space and whether BOA maintained the building’s facade, electrical and HVAC systems in “good operating condition” and took “reasonable precautions to prevent deterioration.”
Representatives from High Rock and Bank of America could not be immediately reached for comment.

No posts to display