Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Partnership in charge of Surrey hospital upgrade claims firm wrongfully signed off on ‘proprietary’ elevators, escalators

BIV’s lawsuit of the week
surrey-hospital-chungchow
Surrey Memorial Hospital | Chung Chow/BIV files

Integrated Team Solutions, the private-sector partnership behind the rehabilitation of Surrey Memorial Hospital, is suing international consulting firm BTY Consultancy Group Inc., claiming the company signed off on elevators and escalators installed in the facility that didn’t conform to the project’s specifications.

Integrated Team Solutions SMH Partnership, by its general partners FED (ITS) SMH Inc. and FED (ITS) SMH LP, filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on June 21. According to the lawsuit, BTY Consultancy Group was brought on as the project’s “independent certifier” in December 2010.

The firm was responsible for inspections to ensure the design and construction met the projects requirements, and providing periodic reports about any project elements that varied from the original project agreement. In addition, the firm was responsible for tracking deficiencies and milestones and issuing compliance certificates.

The $512 million Surrey Memorial Hospital project involved a 30-year partnership agreement that called for a new emergency department, a neonatal intensive care unit, a rooftop helicopter pad and a new laboratory facility. Integrated was to design, build finance, and maintain the updated facilities.

The project called for both a “non-proprietary elevator control system” and a “non-proprietary escalator control system” to be installed in the new facilities, according to the claim. Throughout construction, BTY issued reports and certificates that were allegedly “inaccurate and misrepresented the Elevators and Escalators.”

It wasn’t until June 2017 that the project’s design-builder disclosed to Integrated Team Solutions “the proprietary nature of the Elevators and Escalators installed at the Project.”

Integrated claims the proprietary elevators and escalators are more costly to service and maintain, and that it has incurred “loss, expense and damages” arising from the cost of replacing the elevators and escalators and their control systems. In addition, Integrated claims it “lost the opportunity to promptly correct or replace or require the Design-Builder to correct or replace the Elevators and Escalators and/or their control systems or other components.”

Integrated Team Solutions seeks unspecified damages for negligence and breach of contract. The allegations have not been tested or proven in court and BTY Consultancy Group had not responded to the lawsuit by press time.