Jury awards $183M to firefighters' families in fatal 'Black Sunday' blaze; NYC owes $140M
After a decade of courtroom battle over a fatal “Black Sunday” blaze that resulted in the immediate deaths of two New York City firefighters and severely injured four others, a state-court jury on Monday awarded $183 million to five of the victims and their families.
The family of the sixth settled with the city prior to the Bronx Supreme Court verdict, and all settled earlier with a former owner of the building, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.
The jury assessed 80 percent of the fault to the city of New York and 20 percent to the landlord, meaning that the city will be responsible for $140 million of the damages.
The city law department said in a written statement provided to AP that it may appeal the apportionment of liability.
“The city has always viewed this incident as a tragedy for the firefighters and their families, but we believe that the jury’s verdict does not fairly apportion liability in view of compelling evidence that established that the landlord’s numerous building code violations were directly responsible for this horrible event,” the statement says. “We will review the record and evaluate our legal options.”
All six firefighters became trapped in a 2005 blaze on the fourth floor of a Bronx tenement, confused by illegal construction of extra walls that blocked fire escapes, Reuters reports. Two died from jumping 50 feet to the ground, and four others were severely injured.
The fire department didn’t issue safety ropes as standard equipment at the time, but does now.
In previous criminal trials years ago, two tenants who made illegal renovations were acquitted of responsibility for the 2005 fire injuries, while the then-current and former building owners were found guilty.
The former owner was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in 2009 but acquitted on a more serious manslaughter charge, the New York Daily News reported at the time.
The then-current owner also was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, but was a corporation and hence faced only a potential fine, the New York Times (reg. req.) reported.
The tenants had faced the same charges.
However, the convictions of both owners were subsequently overturned in 2011, when the trial judge granted a defense motion and ruled that there was no evidence proving the owners knew of the illegal renovations, the Associated Press reported.
Related coverage:
Long Island Business News: “Seeking justice for ‘Black Sunday’ firefighters”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Verdict Sealed in Fatal N.Y. Fire Case Despite Lawyers’ Objections”
ABAJournal.com: “Jury Verdict Unsealed in Fatal N.Y. Fire: 2 Tenants Not Guilty”
