Carter & Burgess Inc., a unit of Jacobs Engineering Group, will be back in a California court on Feb. 28, seeking dismissal of a December ruling ordering the company to pay the city of Victorville $52.1 million over a failed powerplant project. The project’s price tag had more than quintupled before it was scrapped for parts in 2006.

Photo: Courtesy of Gibbs, Giden, Locher, Turner & Senet LLP

Powerplant, now defunct, is focus of fight between city and Jacobs Engineering unit.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor ruled on Dec. 17 against the Fort Worth-based engineer, which was acquired by Jacobs in 2007.

Following a seven-week trial, the jury ordered Carter & Burgess to make a cash payment for damages to compensate the city for “professional negligence, misrepresentation and breach of contractual and fiduciary duty” over the failed 17.5-MW Foxborough cogeneration powerplant.

The firm was hired in 2003 for turnkey services on three city utility projects, including the $22-million Foxborough plant, which a Carter & Burgess feasibility study had recommended. The Industrial Co., a unit of Kiewit Corp., Omaha, Neb., was the contractor. The original schedule called for the plant to be finished in 2006, court documents say. “Carter & Burgess provided the city with misleading pro formas and used inflated revenue numbers,” says Glenn E. Turner, the city’s Los Angeles-based attorney. Jacobs officials could not be reached for comment.

Construction costs ballooned to $60 million before the city pulled the plug in June 2006. Another $50 million was needed to finish the 75%-complete plant, the city claims, making it cost-prohibitive. Victorville eventually recouped $8 million by selling off parts and pieces and refinancing its project bond debt. Carter & Burgess sued the city in 2008 for $106,196 in unpaid fees, after receiving $8.2 million for the Foxborough job.

The city responded with a 2009 countersuit. “They did the work. They just did it borderline recklessly,” Turner says. “The city relied on them for everything.” According to Carter & Burgess’ filings, the city “continually … made major changes” that drove up costs.