City of Picayune files suit against architects over city hall flooding

The City of Picayune has retained the law firm of Dukes, Dukes, Keating, and Faneca, P.A. of Gulfport, MS, to represent the city’s interest in a lawsuit filed against Landry Lewis Germany Architects of Hattiesburg, MS.

The City is seeking to recover all damages and costs to repair the damage incurred according to the lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Pearl River County, Mississippi, on March 4, 2019.

According to lawsuit documents filed in the Pearl River Circuit Court on Monday against Landry Lewis Germany Architects (Landry Lewis) and five John Does, the City of Picayune has hired the law firm of Dukes, Dukes, Keating & Faneca, P.A. of Gulfport, MS to represent the city in that lawsuit.

According to the documents filed, the City of Picayune entered into an agreement with Landry Lewis Germany Architects for its services for the design of the expansion and renovation of the current Picayune City Hall building at 203 Goodyear Blvd. Landry Lewis was paid $183,714 for its services. The total cost of the work performed by the contractor, Mac’s Construction, was $1,869,100.00 according to the lawsuit documents filed.

The lawsuit states that Landry Lewis “was negligent in its performance of its duties and obligations that it agreed to perform for the City on this Project”. The documents also state that the City of Picayune has and will continue to sustain past and future expenses and losses incurred by and necessary to address the problem of flooding and water intrusion into the City’s building.