Case Studies
J.S. Held Acquires Technorm, Québec’s Leading Forensic, Building Safety & Compliance Experts
Read MoreAnalysis of Contamination Levels
The insured claimed that a private branch exchange telecommunication switch was contaminated by highly corrosive substances from a building collapse and required replacement at a cost of $25 million. The insured hired an outside expert to perform an evaluation, which supported their claim. Our experts were also brought in to conduct an inspection from which we did not believe that the switch was contaminated from the building collapse.
Dust inside electronic equipment is normal over time, and our team recommended that chemical constituent analyses be conducted on both the impurities inside the switch and the contamination resulting from the building collapse. In addition, it was recommended that historical contamination data for the area be compared to the samples, as every day there is contamination from virtually every environment. An independent lab was retained to evaluate these samples.
The analytical results proved that the particulates within the switch did not have the same chemical fingerprint as the contamination from the building collapse. The chemical fingerprint of the dust within the switch closely matched the chemical fingerprint of the historical contamination (normal environmental contamination). Based on this evidence, the insured withdrew their $25 million claim.