The Greater DC Diaper Bank has filed a lawsuit against the landlord and property manager of a Silver Spring warehouse, accusing it of failing to repair a leaky roof that damaged the nonprofit’s products and disrupted operations.
“These ongoing and worsening roof leaks slowed, and at times, halted the entire distribution operations of one of The Diaper Bank’s core programs,” according to the lawsuit.
The Diaper Bank demands $775,000 in the suit. The landlord, WWDC Industrial Park, filed a counterclaim, alleging the Diaper Bank failed to pay rent and breached its contract by using the warehouse, at 8846 Monard Drive, for purposes other than those specified in the lease: storing and distributing diapers.
In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 17, the Diaper Bank said it reported the leaks more than a dozen times to the landlord but received no or inadequate responses. It moved out in January.
Attorneys for WWDC and Donohoe Real Estate Services, the other defendant named in the lawsuit, which serves as WWDC’s property manager, did not respond to a request for comment.
Both defendants filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Donohoe said in its motion that the lawsuit is a dispute between a tenant and landlord that it’s not substantially connected to.
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The Diaper Bank, one of the largest in the country, has distributed more than 65 million diapers since it was founded in 2010 and signed a lease in 2013 with WWDC that eventually included several buildings on Monard Drive.
The nonprofit filed its complaint in D.C. Superior Court, but the case has been transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The Diaper Bank lost tens of thousands of dollars in inventory, according to the suit, and shut down its Baby Pantry program — which provides food, formula, wipes and baby bathtubs — to avoid health code violations. Shuttering this program meant the Diaper Bank lost out on more than $600,000 in donor contributions that would have gone to families in need, the suit said.



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