A New York University claims damages in the amount of one million dollars to a maintenance contracting company whose employee turned off a freezer from a laboratory by mistake, thus destroying 20 years of investigationas reported by local media on Tuesday.
The facts date back to the end of 2020, when a concierge in it Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutein the town of Troy (upstate New York), heard some “nuisance alarms” coming from the freezer and turned it offdespite the fact that a note asked not to touch it because it was pending repair, indicates CNN.
University sued the janitor’s employer, Daigle Cleaning Systems, for negligence this month. in Rensselaer County Supreme Court, arguing that that action irretrievably damaged cell cultures, specimens, and research related to the biochemistry and solar energy.
It may interest you
In the document, the university indicated that the materials contained in the apparatus had to be kept at 80 degrees Celsius below zero and a fluctuation of only three degrees would cause damageso when the temperature rose to 78 degrees below zero due to its malfunction, the alarms went off.
However, it was the time of the pandemic and due to the restrictions on the activity, the freezer manufacturer couldn’t come in to make emergency repairs quickly.
Faced with several days of waiting, the researcher responsible for the device posted a warning note in capital letters in which he asked not to move or turn off the freezer despite the beeps, with instructions to silence it briefly, and a safety lock on the plug.
He concierge, with apparent good intentionthought that the electricity was not reaching the freezerwent to the fuse box and flipped the switch, doing the opposite of what he intended: turning off the power, which raised the temperature to 32 degrees below zero, the document indicates, according to The Washington Post.
The project of investigation Destroyed, by Professor KV Lakshmi, it was about photosynthesis and had “potential to be revolutionary” in solar technologyadd that medium.
2023-06-27 20:32:00
#University #sues #contractor #employee #mistake
