The Courts

Texas Sixth Court of Appeals (Texarkana)
New Trial Ordered in Stadium Turf Dispute
Ruling: A jury’s verdict that awarded an ISD less than it had hoped for in a dispute over artificial turf installed in the district’s new football stadium is invalidated, and a new trial must be held. Pleasant Grove ISD v. FieldTurf USA, Inc. and Altech, Inc., No. 06-19-00022-CV. Issued April 3.

This unanimous decision by a three-member Sixth Court panel centers on a lawsuit PGISD filed against FieldTurf USA (which manufactured the artificial turf material used in the ISD’s high school football stadium that opened in 2009) and Altech, the stadium’s primary construction contractor.

PGISD claimed that the FieldTurf product installed — Prestige XM-60 with Duraspine fibers — failed three years before the eight-year warranty expired, and that the district had been led to believe the turf could last from 10 to 12 years. PGISD also claimed that FieldTurf didn’t tell it that several of the company’s stadium fields using the same turf materials had previously failed.

FieldTurf claimed that any problems with the turf were merely cosmetic and that PGISD had not allowed the firm to perform corrective actions instead of insisting that replacing the entire field was the only option.

Altech claimed that it shouldn’t be liable because the school board specifically voted to select the FieldTurf product for the new stadium. Altech hired a subcontractor to buy the turf from FieldTurf and to install the turf on the stadium floor.

The trial judge: 1) dismissed Altech from the suit, 2) dismissed PGISD’s claims of fraud against FieldTurf and 3) sent PGISD’s breach-of-warranty claim to a jury, which resulted in the district being awarded $175,000. (PGISD asserted that it cost it roughly twice as much to replace the entire field at its own expense.)

On appeal by PGISD and FieldTurf, the justices, without commenting on the merits of the case, sent the litigation back to the trial judge with instructions to issue revised rulings and to hold a new trial.