OneRoof kicks CEO to curb as it settles arbitration case

OneRoof Energy will see Alexander’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and multiply it by 90.

In the latest act of of this solar tragedy, David Field, the company’s president and CEO, resigned from all positions in the company and its subsidiaries, while the company settled an arbitration action that had lingered since November with Trinity Heating & Air, Inc., d/b/a Trinity Solar.

To replace Field, Dalton W. Sprinkle, formerly SVP, General Counsel and Secretary of OneRoof, will take the helm as its CEO Interim Chief Executive Officer in addition to his other duties and will oversee the completion of the company’s dissolution.

The $1.07 million settlement stemmed from Trinity’s charges that OneRoof had not fulfilled the contract between the two entities and committed common law fraud. The original claim had asked for $12.5 million in damages, against which the companyf filed its own arbitration claims. Part of the settlement – $1 million – will be held by a third party to compensate it for Trinity-developed projects that OneRoof sold to another third party. The rest will include the transfer of certain projects and project leads from OneRoof to Trinity.

The fall for OneRoof came suddenly and steeply.

As recently as October, 82% of the employees writing on the business-review site Glassdoor approved of the job Field was doing, and OneRoof closed $17 million in funding to finance residential solar projects to be originated with homeowners located in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and New York in November.

But the positive reviews and influx of cash masked unsustainable financials. In December, the company reduced its workforce from 145 to 89 in mid-December and announced it was working to close the business entirely. Proof of OneRoof’s insolvency surfaced one mother later, when it announced it had defaulted on the rent for its corporate headquarters, owing the landlord more than $350,000 at the time. OneRoof eventually settled the dispute 50 cents on the dollar. It vacated its offices on April 1.

Last month, OneRoof agreed to sell its direct and indirect interests in 747 residential solar systems and related leases and power purchase agreements to Greenbacker Residential Solar for approximately $8 million. Stock in the company’s parent company, OneRoof Energy Group, last traded at $0.02 on April 13.