CPM Helps First Major Wave of Millennium Tower Individual Owners File Suit
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy filed their first group of lawsuits on behalf of individual homeowners in San Francisco’s Millennium Tower – the massive, 58-story condominium building that continues to sink and tilt with no solution in sight. By some estimates, the building eventually could sink as much as 31 inches or more. Other owners have filed claims and suits against Millennium Partners and their affiliates and the project next to the Millennium Tower – the Transbay Joint Power Authority.
“There is plenty of finger-pointing among those who contributed to and concealed the ongoing movement of the building from Millennium Tower homeowners,” said Frank Pitre, the lead attorney at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP. “The homeowners deserve swift answers and accountability very quickly.”
The developers, engineers, architects, and builders of the Millennium Tower acknowledge that the skyscraper sank during the course of its construction. However, they now allege that the land beneath it was further compromised by construction of the new Transbay Terminal transit center. The Transbay Joint Power Authority is the public agency responsible for construction of the new Transbay Terminal.
The lawsuit details a 2005 geotechnical report done by Treadwell & Rollo and a February 14, 2005 memo which cautioned Millennium Partners that the rate of building settlement estimates could have a plus or minus 50 percent uncertainty. The memo went on to state, “If this level of uncertainty is not acceptable, then other designs should be considered.”
The lawsuits filed are on behalf of nine owners in San Francisco Superior Court, the first of a number of suits to be filed and allege:
- That the developer Millennium Partners Management, LLC and several affiliated entities fraudulently withheld information from homeowners when they purchased their condominium units.
- Claims for inverse condemnation and nuisance claiming damages against The Transbay Joint Power Authority (“TJPA”) for their alleged conduct in furthering the losses by improperly building the adjacent property causing damage to the Millennium.
The Complaint states that, “Construction of the Millennium Tower was completed in early 2009, with the building’s grand opening in April 2009. The 645 foot skyscraper was, at the time of its completion, the tallest and most expensive residential building west of the Mississippi and among San Francisco’s tallest high rise buildings.” The Complaint alleges the plaintiffs were all unaware of the serious problems when they purchased.
The plaintiffs are represented by the law firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, which has experience litigating complex construction and land use cases.
Case Name: Lenehan, et al. v. Millennium Partners, et al. – CGC-17-557038