Berkeley Tenants Sue Landlord, Elevator Company a Year after Devastating Fire

By Doug Oakley
Staff Writer
Bay Area News Group
doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com
First published on Oct. 16, 2012
BERKELEY -- Nearly a year after a roaring fire destroyed a Haste Street apartment building and the belongings of 68 residents, lawyers are battling in court over who is to blame and how much the possessions are worth. 

Forty-one former tenants who lost all of their possessions in the Nov. 18, 2011, fire at 2441 Haste St. are suing the owners of the building, Kenneth and Gregory Ent, and Paramount Elevator Corp. 

The Berkeley Fire Department investigation concluded that the fire started in the building's elevator control room. 

The seven-part complaint also asks for punitive damages based on allegations that the owners knew of substandard conditions before the fire and were asked to correct them but did not. 

To get punitive damages, the plaintiffs must first win their suit, then prove the owners of the property were "malicious, oppressive and intentional" in their role as landlords, said Mary Catherine Wiederhold, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. 

In their suit, the 41 plaintiffs say the 100-year-old building had "numerous substandard, non-code compliant and unhealthy conditions" before the fire, including bad plumbing and gas lines, an inadequate supply of hot water, inadequate heat, defective smoke detectors, substandard wiring and lighting and a defective elevator. All those conditions, the suit says, were known to exist by the owners and were the cause of the fire. 

"Some of my clients had their entire livelihood and personal possessions in their apartments, and they were lucky to get out with their lives," Wiederhold said. "Some were from foreign countries, had no family in the U.S. and got out with the clothes they were wearing." 

In a meeting shortly after the fire, tenants reported that lights would dim when they turned on a microwave oven or turned on an electric tea pot, and the elevator was often broken. On the night of the fire, two tenants who used a fire escape found themselves on the roof of an adjacent building with no way down. They were rescued only when employees of a nearby restaurant brought them a ladder. 

John Podesta, an attorney representing the owners declined to comment, saying only that the owners side of the story will be included in a court filing coming soon. 

No trial date has been set. 

Doug Oakley covers Berkeley. Contact him at 510-843-1408. Follow him at Twitter.com/douglasoakley.