Officials investigate massive water damage

Four separate investigations are under way to determine why a sprinkler head malfunctioned and caused widespread damage in the new $38 million Gartin Justice Building in Jackson, state Chief Justice Jim Smith said Wednesday.

The building architect, the state Department of Finance and Administration, the fire marshal's office and contractors are looking into why the fourth-floor sprinkler went off one night last week when the building was closed, Smith said.

There also could be an investigation by state insurance carriers, Smith said.

No damage estimate was available Wednesday, Smith said.

The water damage will continue to delay oral arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the immediate future. Smith is looking for an alternative location to hear oral arguments until the Gartin Justice Building is restored.

Despite a delay in oral arguments, Smith said court business is continuing with a skeleton crew.

"We are slower, but we are working," Smith said.

The building opened in February. In addition to the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the building houses the Supreme Court Clerk, the State Library, the Administrative Office of Courts, the Board of Bar Admissions, the Board of Certified Court Reporters and the Commission on Continuing Legal Education.

Smith said hopefully all of the roughly 150 employees will be back to work Monday, but it will be several weeks before the building is restored to normal.

A week after water inundated the east half of the four-story, 139,789-square-foot building, certain parts resemble a disaster area. Visitors on Wednesday saw carpet stripped from floors and hallways, floor molding removed from walls and missing ceiling panels in some areas. Cleanup and restoration crews scurried throughout hallways and offices.

About 200 files in the court clerk's office received water damage and had to be dried page by page. On Wednesday, workers continued restoring the files.

Lightweight plastic tubing carrying hot air snaked throughout the hallways. The constant sounds of machinery drying out the building pierced the air. The small crew of court workers and others often have to lift the plastic tubing to enter offices and immediately after entering the building.

"It's so much better now," said Smith, whose office was almost spared water damage.

But just down the hall, the offices of Justices George Carlson Jr. and Ann Lamar received heavy water damage. The malfunctioning sprinkler was in the hallway outside Carlson's office.

"I couldn't believe the magnitude of it," Carlson said of the water damage.

In addition to records and the offices of members of the Supreme Court receiving damage, third-floor offices of some members of the Court of Appeals, the second-floor courtroom for a three-judge panel, second-floor offices of the Board of Bar Admissions, first-floor offices of the Supreme Court Finance Department and the basement office of the Information Systems Department received damage.

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