While I appreciate that this is a big loss, my first thought was, why was 20 years' worth of research put in a place where any passing janitor (or, presumably, anybody else) could wreck it? The only surprise was that it took "2 decades" for this to happen.
> It is suspected that the beeping alarm had been triggered by a mechanical malfunction that had prevented the unit from maintaining a constant temperature.
Sounds like the research was already in jeopardy, but in this case, there's someone to blame.
Mandatory IANAL, but to be fair I guess that the research institute will have a hard time asking for damages.
Seems like there were a lot of lacking protocols to ensure the safety of the freezer.
Why is a janitor even allowed to access the main unit to shut the freezer off? Why were no alert displayed? And so on.