UH, along with the Houston Cougars Foundation, is being sued for over $200,000 by a contractor that worked on the baseball team’s newly-opened Player Development Facility, according to court documents filed Tuesday in Harris County.
Rubber Flooring Systems, Inc., according to the documents, worked on custom flooring and lockers in the $6-million PDC and alleges “after seven months of repeated requests for payment” UH has not paid the company for its work.
“We are aware of the claims brought by Rubber Flooring, which we believe should have been made against the general contractor as opposed to the University,” the University said in a statement. “Nevertheless, all parties are working toward an amicable resolution of the matter.”
The contractor’s work, for which negotiations began in August 2016, the suit states, was approved by baseball coach Todd Whitting and operations director Traci Cauly in July 2019, months before the PDC became fully operational earlier this semester.
In September 2019, after UH cut a $13,000 check to Rubber Flooring that wasn’t enough to pay the funds owed, the company alleges, the University said the Houston Cougars Foundation was liable for unpaid materials and labor.
Rubber Flooring argues in the lawsuit that since HCF is an endowment arm of UH it “does not exist separate and apart from it.”