Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
An interesting law suit is brewing in Washington DC over a fire that occurred in the Georgetown Library in April, 2007. The three alarm fire damaged the building that was undergoing renovations at the time, and destroyed a number of historical documents and artwork.
DC fire investigators concluded that the blaze was caused by heat guns being used by a contractor to remove paint from windows. Charred electric heat guns were found in the area of origin, along with flammable chemicals that tended to contradict the contractor’s statements that lead paint was being removed using wire brushes.
As owner of the building, the City sued the contractor for damages. The contractor disputed the City’s contention, and as the case progressed has raised a number of questions about the conduct of the investigation. In particular the case seems mired in discovery problems related to the fire inspectors providing City attorneys with needed documentation and evidence. In recent days, DC papers and bloggers have been sounding the alarm about the case.
The City Desk is quoting a City attorney as having emailed the fire investigators the following, imploring them to produce the requested information:
"This is a 13+million dollar law suit. Enough for DC to hire many firefighters, or lawyers for that matter (or avoid layoffs or furloughs). Is there nothing that can be done to get this information? The first e-mail request in this chain was sent mid-February. (Though the original discovery requests to FEMS were sent maybe as long as a year before that time). We are now facing two motions for sanctions for not providing discovery. If granted the sanctions could limit our ability to present information. We need more urgency in getting these responses than we have had so far."
We will be keeping an eye on this case as it unfolds. Unfortunately, law suits can become more about procedure than the underlying truth. When one party has a right to certain information, and the other party cannot or does not produce it, the result can be sanctions, or even a judgment, in favor of the party who was denied the information. Stay tuned.
