Former Residents of West Phila. Apartment Complex Settle Class Action Suit With Owners
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- More than a hundred people who were displaced by a fire that destroyed their West Philadelphia apartment building four years ago have a reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the owners of the property.
"This has been a long road," noted Thomas More Marrone, an attorney with the firm Greenblatt Pierce, who needed four years to prepare his case and just three days to try it before the owners of the Windermere Court Apartments agreed to settle.
The price: nearly five million dollars.
"After the settlement was announced I had class members coming up to me in the hallway, hugging me with tears in their eyes," Marrone told KYW Newsradio today. "That's pricelesss."
The lawsuit claimed that smoke alarms and fire extinguishers didn't work, allowing the fire to spread rapidly through the building at 48th and Walnut Streets.
More than 150 firefighters were needed to bring the five-alarm blaze under control, according to Marrone.
"I think that this settlement is fair for the class members," he added, "and I believe the judge will approve it when it's presented for final fairness approval."
