Subway sues surveillance provider

WHEELING - A company that operates several Subway restaurants in West Virginia is suing a company hired to provide surveillance for its locations.

Sandow Corp. filed a lawsuit May 6 in Ohio Circuit Court against 3States.net, alleging 3States.net breached a contract and committed fraud when it installed the equipment.

Holly Planinsic of Wheeling law firm Herndon, Morton, Herndon and Yaeger is representing Sandow.

Sandow says it hired 3States.net to installed video surveillance in four locations: Wheeling, Follansbee, Weirton and Steubenville, Ohio, with the stipulations that the equipment would allow Sandow to monitor each location in real time and the footage could be stored.

"The Plaintiff was not and still has not been able to capture any images or other data captured by the surveilance system in any manner for future use as it had requested of the Defendant and as the Defendant promised," the complaint says. "Rather, the system has only permitted real-time viewing of each of the aforementioned Subway stores."

Sandow says it informed 3States.net that the camera system was not properly working six times since late 2004.

"Each time, the defendant provided an excuse why the camera images were not being captured," the complaint says. "The defendant has maintained that minor adjustments to the system would fix the problem but the problem has never been resolved."

Sandow says it had to spend extra money when it sought the opinion of another company and is seeking $10,000 in compensatory damages.

Judge Ronald E. Wilson has been assigned the case.

Ohio Circuit Court case number 06-C-163