A new lawsuit filed on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who lost her mother in last month's Rhode Island nightclub fire targets the radio station and beer company that sponsored the show.
The suit, filed in Providence Superior Court by attorney
Stefanie DiMaio Larivee, names 18 defendants, many of whom were also targeted in a similar Massachusetts suit from March 4 (see "Victims' Families File Suit Over Rhode Island Club Fire Disaster"). But it also names companies with deeper pockets: radio station WHJY-FM; WHJY's parent company, Clear Channel Communications; beer distributor McLaughlan & Moran; and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch.
Attorney Brian Cunha, who filed the Massachusetts suit, said he is considering adding WHJY and Clear Channel as well because there is evidence that the radio station knew that hard-rockers Great White were going to use pyrotechnics at Warwick's Station club that night and knew that other bands had fired off pyro at the club before.
WHJY's program director did not return calls. Clear Channel Senior Vice President Lisa Dollinger told the Providence Journal that her company bears no responsibility for the blaze, and Anheuser-Busch's general counsel told the paper his company should not have been named in the suit because it did not "advertise, sponsor or promote" the band Great White.
Cunha agrees and will not consider adding the beer giant to his list of defendants. "I think it's farfetched," he said. "Every time there's an accident at a nightclub or bar or restaurant and someone has a Budweiser, they're responsible? It's like saying McDonald's is responsible for people getting fat."
Other defendants named in the Providence suit are Station owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian; their corporation; the four surviving members of Great White; the band's manager and tour manger, Manic Music Management; agent Paul Woolnough; the group's record company, Knight Records; American Foam Corp., which sold the flammable soundproofing to the club; Luna Tech Inc., which makes the pyrotechnics the band used; and Luna Tech's German parent corporation, Luna Tech Pyrotechnik GmbH.
The plaintiff in the case is Ronald Kingsley, whose daughter's mother, Lisa Kelley, died in the blaze along with 98 other victims. The lawsuit fingers the Derderians for allegedly operating an unsafe club, negligently installing flammable soundproofing material, failing to apply for a pyrotechnics permit, allowing Great White to use pyro without a license, and failing to make sure emergency lighting and exit signs were lit.
Attorneys for the Derderians did not return calls. Great White attorney Ed McPherson said he hasn't been served the suit yet but that he's worried the spate of inevitable lawsuits will interfere with the criminal investigation. "I think these lawsuits should be stayed pending the conclusion of that investigation, which we're cooperating fully with," he said.
Cunha has met with approximately 20 other people who lost loved ones in the Station fire and will likely file multiple suits in the coming weeks, he said. Many of his clients want to file lawsuits for those who perished. In Rhode Island, wrongful death suits can't be filed by a victim's estate until 30 days after the incident in which the victim died, which means the bulk of the lawsuits won't be filed until the end of the month.
Look out for your own safety, and check out "How To Keep Yourself Safe If There's A Crowd Crush Or Fire At A Club."
This report is from MTV News.
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