Thursday, July 6, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.
Mandalay Resort Group is seeking restitution from two Imax theater vendors, alleging it lost revenues because their allegedly defective three-dimensional film equipment delayed installation work at two of its hotel-casinos.
Mandalay Resort, formerly Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., owns Circus Circus and Luxor hotel-casinos and other properties in Las Vegas and around the nation.
In a Clark County District Court suit, Mandalay Resort sued Imax Corp., a Canadian film projector maker and its vendor Tri-Tech International Inc., alleging it incurred additional costs because they failed to timely deliver and properly install six new motion bases and three Ridefilm theaters.
A Ridefilm theater is a giant screen that shows two- and three-dimensional movies. A motion base is a simulator that makes chairs move in a 3D movie theater.
Mandalay Resort also said it was duped into releasing Imax's predecessor from liability for the defective motion bases it had installed at the Luxor's Past Theater when the hotel-casino operator agreed in June 1996 to buy six new motion bases for $1.58 million.
These were purchased from Imax's new vendor, Tri-Tech, to replace the defective ones.
Mandalay Resort, which said Imax had promised the new motion bases wouldn't contain manufacturing defects, said the new motion bases were tested and several of the welds in the bases were allegedly found defective because they didn't include "certain stress analyses and structural features" required by the project engineer, Ken Bingham.
The lawsuit said the defendants "unjustifiably resisted and delayed in implementing the testing and design changes," and caused the hotel-casino operator to incur additional maintenance costs to remedy the defective bases.
Two new motion bases were to be installed and fully operational by Aug. 15, 1996, and the remaining four bases, by Nov. 15, 1996. The schedule was later revised such that Tri-Tech was to complete installation of the bases between June and September 1997.
Despite the delay, the suit said two of the six motion bases were never installed and the defendants failed to provide engineering studies, weld specifications, parts list and other documents needed to get permits from the Clark County Building Department.
Mandalay Resort, which said it paid $578,000 for three Imax Ridefilm theaters to be installed for Circus Circus' Grand Slam Canyon Adventuredome, said the project's completion was delayed to June 30, 1997, from Jan. 30, 1997.
Imax's spokeswoman, Victoria Dinnick, declined comment.
The hotel-casino operator also said its vendor Tri-Tech refused to install the new motion bases even though it negotiated and received the downpayment and later sought to renegotiate a higher contract price.
"Under duress and mindful of the hundreds of thousands of dollars which had already been paid to Tri-Tech, Luxor unwittingly increased the contract price to $1.8 million and assumed a scope of work which had originally been Tri-Tech's responsibility," Mandalay's lawsuit said.
archive
