Luxor files lawsuit over lighting system

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

On New Year's Eve 1997, the Luxor resort in Las Vegas wowed the Strip with a $1 million exterior lighting system designed to add glitter to a 30-story black pyramid that otherwise faded away into the darkness.

The Starlight Lighting System -- a remote-controlled marvel powered by thousands of circuit boards and computer chips -- has since been plagued by faulty equipment and is subject to power shutdowns.

That's according to the Luxor, which is suing the Las Vegas engineering company that created the system claiming that the company failed to honor multiple agreements to fix the system over the past several years.

In October 1997, Luxor signed a purchase agreement calling for Bee Inc. to install the lighting system and to repair and replace it when necessary, according to a suit filed last month in Clark County District Court.

The system "wasn't fully operational in the manner that had been represented by Bee and the system suffered from numerous design flaws, construction flaws and unscheduled power shutdowns, among other problems," the suit said.

Officials with Luxor parent Mandalay Resort Group and Bee Inc. could not be reached for comment on the suit or lighting problems at the resort.

Bee failed to repair and replace the lighting system after Luxor entered into subsequent contracts with the company to correct the problems, the suit said. The first contract was signed in May 2000 and a second was signed in July 2001.

The problems still hadn't been solved as of at least July 21, the suit said.

Luxor added the lights to spice up the resort at night, when it blended into the landscape despite the powerful beam shining into the sky from the pyramid's apex.

The lights illuminate the four corners of Luxor's pyramid and consist of lighting cylinders that are plugged into each other. The cylinders contain strobe lights and circuit boards guide operation. The lights are set on a timer and are programmed to produce various special effects.

The resort also is disputing a claim by Bee arising from a separate agreement to provide window-washing services using a mechanical device.

In September 1994, the resort signed an agreement to receive window-washing services from Bee and in May 1995 received a separate agreement to receive a window-cleaning system and window-cleaning services.

Bee claims it owns the window-cleaning system and has said that any use by the Luxor of the system is unauthorized and that the resort will be liable for any damages arising from its use, the suit says.