From “Church Sues Con Ed Over Damage to Pipe Organ,” The New York Times, June 13, 2007 (Associated Press Dispatch).
A historic church has sued Consolidated Edison for $1 million, claiming that its 89-year-old pipe organ, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere, was damaged by steam escaping from beneath the adjacent street and sidewalk.
In court papers filed Monday in State Supreme Court, the church, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, says that it told the utility on June 30, 2004, about an “extraordinary amount of steam” coming from Park Avenue into the church. But, the papers say, the utility did not take any action until five weeks later, when it repaired components that were causing steam to enter the church, which is on Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets.
The church’s lawsuit claims that soon after the initial complaint, the pipe organ, an Aeolian-Skinner, began to malfunction. The problems were caused by moisture being drawn into the organ’s pipe system through its blowers and pumps in the church basement, the court papers say.
“The moist, humid and damp air,” the papers say, caused “a general, overall breakdown of the organ system.”
A Con Ed spokesman, Chris Olert, said yesterday that the utility would not comment on pending litigation.
The church’s pipe organ, as described on its Web site, was built in 1918 by the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, has 12,422 pipes and uses temperature-controlled air pressure.
It was once played by Leopold Stokowski, who came from England in 1905 to be St. Bartholomew’s organist and choirmaster and later became a world-renowned conductor.
What can we learn from this?
1. At least some of Con Edison’s steam pipes fail some of the time.
2. Even if it’s damaging a well-connected landmark church (you don’t need to be Episcopalian in New York to know where St. Bart’s is – or to have visited – it’s a stunning building, and they have had (and may still have) wonderful music programs, Con Edison is either
(A) unconcerned about powerful institutions and bad publicity
(B) So overwhelmed with even more serious repairs and problems that it couldn’t get to this for five weeks
Or so badly managed they didn’t promptly route the information internally and make a decision.