Wash. justices reinstate Safeco Field lawsuit

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The Washington state Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit over faulty construction work done at the home of the Seattle Mariners, Safeco Field.

The Mariners and the state Public Facilities District, which owns the ballpark, sued the general contractor who built Safeco after the team noticed in 2005 that a fireproof coating on structural beams was blistering. The team claims that a subcontractor used the wrong primer on the beams, and so the fireproof coating was incompatible.

The repairs cost several million dollars. A lower court judge dismissed the claims against the general contractor — Huber, Hunt & Nichols-Kiewit Construction Co. — as well as the general contractor's claims against the subcontractors involved. The judge said the blistering happened too long after Safeco's completion in 1999 for the contractors to be held liable.

The high court unanimously disagreed, citing the language of the contract.