South Carolina Lawyer Blog
A couple who fled Africa to save their granddaughter’s life has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against their ex-landlord for her death and for their own injuries in a 2009 house fire, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Their apartment caught fire as the result of the man next door falling asleep with a lit cigarette. The grandparents were unable to open the second-floor windows to escape and lost consciousness along with their granddaughter and were pulled from the building by firefighters. The 10-year-old died the following day from smoke inhalation and the adults were in comas for several months with severe burns and have been left disabled.
The lawsuit alleges the former landlord did not warn them of either the neighbor’s history of starting fires and of his mental disorder or that the upstairs windows could not be opened.