Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private research university in upstate New York, has filed a lawsuit after a janitor unknowingly cost the institute over $1 million in destroyed scientific research.

Joseph Harrington, a janitor contracted to clean the university’s Cogswell Building from August 2020 through to November 2020 unknowingly destroyed more than 20 years of research when he turned off a freezer after he heard multiple “annoying alarms.”

This costly million-dollar decision has now prompted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to file a lawsuit against the janitor's employer, Daigle Cleaning Systems Inc. The janitor himself has not been named in the lawsuit.

The university explains that the lab freezer housed over 20 years of research that was funded by the university and had the “potential to be groundbreaking." The research included cell cultures and other samples which required consistent frigid temperatures. According to the lawsuit, a “small temperature fluctuation of three degrees would cause catastrophic damage.”

According to university personnel, the freezer needed to maintain a temperature of -80° Celsius and even small fluctuations in the temperature could destroy the cell cultures inside. As a mitigation tactic, an alarm was implemented so that if temperatures increased to -78° Celsius or went below -82° Celsius, an alarm would sound.

K.V. Lakshmi, a professor and director of the school’s Baruch ’60 Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research oversaw the research and noted that the freezer’s alarm sounded on or around September 14, 2020, after temperatures had risen above the critical -78° Celsius mark. The research team determined that the samples inside the freezer would be okay until the freezer’s manufacturer could conduct repairs.

In the meantime, Lakshmi and her team secured the freezer with a lock box surrounding the outlet and socket powering the freezer. Additional steps were taken including a warning sign that read, “THIS FREEZER IS BEEPING AS IT IS UNDER REPAIR. PLEASE DO NOT MOVE OR UNPLUG IT. NO CLEANING REQUIRED IN THIS AREA. YOU CAN PRESS THE ALARM/TEST MUTE BUTTON FOR 5-10 SECONDS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MUTE THE SOUND.”

Despite this warning and added safety measures, on September 17, the janitor heard the “annoying alarms'' and attempted to be helpful by flipping a switch on a circuit breaker from “on” to “off.” This decision cut off power to the freezer prompting temperatures to rise to -32° Celsius.

According to the university, when research students realized the freezer was turned off the next day, they attempted to preserve the cell cultures but the majority of the work was deemed, “compromised, destroyed, and rendered unsalvageable demolishing more than twenty years of research.”

The lawsuit takes issue not with the janitor's consequential actions but with his employer's failure to properly train and supervise him. The lawsuit explains that Cleaning Systems Inc “by and through its negligent, careless, and/or reckless supervision and control of , caused damage to certain cell cultures, samples, and/or research in the Lab.”

Michael Ginsberg, an attorney for the university, issued a statement to CNN that read in parts, “We don’t believe there was any nefarious conduct (on the) part of the cleaning company,” adding, “This was a result of human error. The core of the case, however, is that the cleaning company failed to adequately train their personnel. A cleaner should be trained to not attempt to remedy an electrical issue.”

Because of the janitor's actions, it is believed that over $1 million worth of scientific research was destroyed. The university is seeking damages estimated to be roughly $1 million, but it’s not clear what dollar figure or what other damages the university will come to.