Suit Filed in Angels Flight Crash Death

The family of Holocaust survivor Leon Praport, who died last month in the crash of the Angels Flight funicular, filed a wide-ranging lawsuit Monday alleging that the city of Los Angeles allowed a “dangerous condition” to exist on public property, creating a “substantial risk of injury” when the downtown railway was in operation.

Praport, 83, was killed and his wife, Lola, was one of seven injured when a mechanical failure caused the railway’s two cars to collide.

The Superior Court suit, filed by Beverly Hills attorney Gary A. Dordick, seeks unspecified general damages from the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency and its construction team.

It also seeks punitive damages from Lift Engineers and Manufacturing Co., Yantrak Inc. and Yanic Kunczynsky, who ran the two companies, which were among those hired to help restore the funicular.

Also named as defendants are Angels Flight Railway Foundation; Angels Flight Operation Co.; Harris & Associates; Tera Design Inc.; Krakower & Associates; Pacific Engineers Group; the Sullivan Partnership; Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas Inc.; Construction Analysts; Law/Crandall Inc.; Tri-Star Surveying; and Pueblo Contracting Services.

The suit claims that Yantrak was not competent to work on Angels Flight because accidents and deaths occurred on previous projects the firm had worked on.

“Inadequate design, construction, inspection and maintenance of Angels Flight, and the failure to install proper safety devices, caused this tragic accident,” Dordick said.