YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A company that wants to process tire chips at its North Avenue site faces a lawsuit accusing it of failing to pay a Niles company for work it performed.
It’s the latest legal issue for SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC.
On July 19, Alcon Mechanical Piping Inc. of Niles filed a complaint in Mahoning County Common Pleas, contending SOBE failed to pay invoices for work Alcon performed to install piping in the Erie Terminal building. SOBE contracted with Alcon for the work in January 2024, according to the lawsuit.
Alcon’s lawsuit said that in September 2024, David Ferro, SOBE CEO, delivered a $400,000 check to Alcon “and was deliberately obtuse and evasive as to whether or not the check could be cashed.”
Alcon attempted to cash it in February. “The check was returned for insufficient funds,” the lawsuit says.
Alcon’s suit seeks more than $424,458 in compensatory damages, as well as unspecified punitive and other damages.
That lawsuit comes after SOBE lost a federal lawsuit that contended it failed to pay for equipment it leased.
An Illinois federal judge in January ordered SOBE to pay Wabash Power Co. of Wheeling, Ill., $273,000, a principal debt for breach of contract; $63,436 in public utility personal property taxes; $30,172 in interest; and $16,605 in attorney fees.
SOBE, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, leased equipment from Wabash, beginning in 2019, for a minimum of 24 months. Monthly payments totalled $19,500. SOBE decided to continue the lease beyond 24 months but failed to make rental payments, the lawsuit said.
Wabash then filed a lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court last May, contending SOBE Energy Solutions and SOBE Thermal Energy Systems retains the equipment it had leased from Wabash and “have refused to permit Wabash Power access to repossess and remove the equipment and wrongfully continue to retain and exercise control over same.”
Last month, Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered the sheriff or other officers to seize the equipment and notify Wabash.
SOBE representatives couldn’t be reached to comment Friday morning.
In February 2024, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued permits for SOBE Thermal Energy Systems to build a synthetic gas production plant at its North Avenue site near downtown. The decision was decried by a local citizens group.
The city has appealed the permit with the Ohio Environmental Appeals Review Commission, and a hearing is set for November.
Pictured at top: SOBE’s North Avenue site in Youngstown.