When a Fortune 500 company faced a violation from the New York City Fire Department for failing to have a certificate of fitness for air chilling equipment on the roof of their building, their General Counsel’s office contacted the lawyers at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to fight the violation.

The implications of being held guilty of the violation were quite significant, as it not only would require the company to engage a full-time engineer to monitor the equipment on a daily basis at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars per year in perpetuity, but would also adversely affect the rest of company’s substantial real estate portfolio in New York City, which had similar equipment, meaning millions of dollars in added labor expenses.

The attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. engaged a team of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers who specialized in the functioning and mechanics of the air chilling equipment to investigate the technical specifications of the equipment relative to the New York City Fire Code.

Working with the engineers, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. discovered that the Fire Department was incorrectly applying the Fire Code to the equipment.

At the hearing on the violation, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. argued that the Fire Code was clearly being misapplied as the equipment in question fell outside of the provisions the Fire Department had cited. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. called the engineers as expert witnesses to testify that the Fire Department was misapplying the Fire Code at the hearing, as well as submitted letters from the licensed engineers of the manufacturers of the equipment, which certified that the equipment did not meet the requirements for a full-time engineer on site.

However, even though the violation was dismissed after the hearing, the Fire Department was relentless and issued identical subsequent violations.

The attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. met with the Fire Department and demanded that the Department meet on-site with the engineering experts to show that the violations had no merit.

This meeting proved to be a great success.  Not only did the Fire Department agree to withdraw and dismiss the new violations, but they also issued a statement to the Fire Department so that the company would face no further harassment concerning the equipment.

Joanna C. Peck and Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. worked on this matter.