Annoying alarm noise" from freezer, cleaners turn off power University sues, saying it ruined 20 years of research U.S.

A janitor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State filed a lawsuit against a cleaning company in Rensselaer County, New York, seeking more than $1 million in damages for ruining more than 20 years of research work when a janitor heard an "annoying alarm noise" in a lab freezer and turned it off. The university has filed a lawsuit against the cleaning company in Rensselaer County, New Jersey, seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The janitor, a contract employee of the cleaning company Daigle Cleaning Systems, worked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for several months in 2020. The janitor himself is not included as a defendant.

According to the complaint, the freezer in the lab stored over 20 years of research materials, including cell cultures and specimens, and "a temperature change of just three degrees could cause catastrophic damage."

The university claimed that the negligence was not on the part of the cleaners themselves, but on the part of the cleaning company, which failed to provide proper training and guidance. The negligence caused damage to cell cultures, specimens, and research results, the suit claims.

CNN has reached out to Daigle Cleaning Systems for comment.

The university's lawyer said, "We do not believe there was any wrongdoing on the part of the cleaning company," adding, "This was the result of human error. But the crux of the matter lies in the cleaning company's failure to properly train its personnel. The cleaning crew should have been trained not to attempt to correct the electrical system problem," he said.

According to the complaint, cell cultures and specimens in the freezer had to be kept at 80 degrees below zero, and a temperature change of only 3 degrees could have damaged them. For this reason, alarms were set to go off if the temperature rose to 78 degrees below zero or dropped to 82 degrees below zero.

Professor K. V. Lakshmi, who supervised the study, noticed that the alarm went off when the temperature rose to 78 degrees below zero around September 14, 2008.

However, Prof. Lakshmi and his team determined that the cell specimens were safe until emergency repairs were made. They decided to wait for the freezer manufacturer to come in for repairs, and in the meantime, they installed safety lock boxes around the electrical outlets. A warning was posted on the freezer.

However, on the 17th of the same month, a cleaner heard an "annoying alarm sound" and operated the breaker supplying power to the freezer, accidentally switching off the breaker. This caused the temperature in the freezer to rise to 32 degrees below zero.

The next day, a student discovered that the freezer had been switched off. Despite attempts to preserve the research results, the university claims that a large part of the culture was "compromised, destroyed, and rendered irredeemable, ruining more than 20 years of research.