Implenia loses in Zurich stadium dispute
In the years-long legal dispute over additional costs in the construction of the Letzigrund Stadium, the Zurich District Court has ruled in favor of the City of Zurich. The city must pay the construction company only CHF 340,000 instead of the CHF 23 million demanded. The dispute revolves around 1,392 change requests made by the City of Zurich during the construction of the Letzigrund Stadium. In total, these order changes cost CHF 23 million.
While the city of Zurich believes that these 1392 changes are included in the price, Implenia wants to be paid extra. The company argues that most of the changes were due to faulty project planning on the part of the city. Faulty or even missing plans were to blame. The city must therefore pay for Implenia's additional work.
In its 220-page ruling, the Zurich District Court mainly upholds the city. Implenia itself bears the risk for missing or faulty tender and execution plans, so the company is not entitled to additional compensation, it says.
The court ruled in favor of Implenia in only two of 1,392 requests. The city must therefore pay the construction company CHF 340,000. However, the 1,390 other changes worth almost 23 million are to be borne by the construction company. Implenia must also pay the city compensation for the proceedings and pay the court costs.
As the Zurich Department of Buildings writes in a statement, the stadium project remains slightly under budget with this verdict. The costs for the athletics stadium, which was opened in 2007 and is also used for soccer matches, amounted to CHF 110 million.
Implenia, meanwhile, says it will first analyze the verdict, which is not yet final, and then consider further steps with a view to the two remaining instances. An initial assessment shows that the court's reasoning does not address Implenia's arguments. Implenia is still of the opinion that the city must pay for changes to the order that it itself subsequently commissioned and for which it also received the service.
The disputes between the City of Zurich and Implenia will continue: The city of Zurich, for example, has filed an additional lawsuit due to alleged water ingress in the stadium roof. The city is demanding rectification or, alternatively, compensation in the amount of ten million CHF. Implenia rejects the allegations as well as the related claims. (ah)
