New Law Used to File Federal Suit in Rhode Island Club Fire

Invoking a statute enacted following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a lawyer on Tuesday filed the first federal lawsuit seeking damages from February’s nightclub fire here that killed 99 people.

The civil suit on behalf of three victims of Rhode Island’s worst fire disaster identifies at least two dozen defendants -- including the state itself and the Rhode Island fire marshal. Attorney Ronald J. Resmini contends that the state failed to properly train local fire officials.

Also named as defendants are the chief fire inspector of West Warwick, where the Station nightclub was located, club owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian and the four surviving members of the band Great White -- whose concert attracted an estimated 400 revelers. The lawsuit also targets Anheuser Busch, which promoted a special beer on the night of the Great White concert, and a Providence radio station that advertised the event.

An additional defendant is the American Foam Corp., distributor of the insulation used as soundproofing in the Station. Sparks from a pyrotechnic display used by Great White ignited the soundproofing material, causing the fire that swept through the club in less than five minutes.

Lawyers for several of those named in the lawsuit said they would not comment on pending litigation.

Nearly 200 people were injured as club-goers frantically searched for exits in the smoke-darkened establishment. Eight victims remain hospitalized, and many others have been transferred to rehabilitation facilities.

Resmini said he was bringing the suit under the Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act of 2002, which gives U.S. district courts jurisdiction in civil cases that result in more than 75 deaths. The legislation took effect weeks before the Rhode Island nightclub fire. The suit filed Tuesday in Providence is the first case to be pursued under the new statute.

Two other lawsuits stemming from the fire have been filed in state court. A federal grand jury also is investigating whether to bring criminal charges.

“We don’t know ... whether it belongs in state court or federal court,” Resmini said Tuesday. “The only way we will have it tested is to put it in the federal court and see what they do.”

The large number of potential plaintiffs and defendants makes the case so complicated that “everyone has a difference of opinion about jurisdiction. None of us could agree on anything,” Resmini said.

He said that under the federal statute, “if a defendant is 1% negligent, then he is responsible for 100% of the claim. So in reality, everybody here could be defined as a primary defendant.” The suit does not specify damages.

But Steven Minicucci, president of the Rhode Island Trial Lawyers Assn., said the statute’s vagueness on the issue of primary defendants sets the stage for a cumbersome appeals process that could complicate an already-dense legal thicket.

“I have some problems with the filing of this lawsuit today,” said Minicucci, faulting Resmini for acting too fast. Minicucci’s law firm represents seven fire victims.

“We’re only eight weeks down the road from this tragedy,” he said. “We feel that this should not be some type of lightning rod that victims should take as an indication that they should be running to the federal courthouse.”

But Walter Castle Jr., a plaintiff in the suit that was filed Tuesday, said he was less interested in money than “justice for the person or persons responsible.”

Castle, a 29-year-old unemployed pizza delivery driver, said smoke inhalation from the fire permanently damaged his lungs. He still has nightmares about the tragedy, he said, in which he lost 45 acquaintances.

“The hardest thing is the ‘Why me?’ thing, why did I make it out and they didn’t,” Castle said, adding that his attorney has told him a settlement could take three to five years.