PROVIDENCE -- In a one-sentence order, the state Supreme Court has rejected a bid by lawyer Brian R. Cunha to oust Mark Mandell and Max Wistow as interim lead counsel for The Station nightclub fire victims.
Cunha, who had sought the position as lead counsel himself, claimed that state Superior Court Judge Alice B. Gibney had no authority to appoint Mandell and Wistow because neither of them has yet filed any suit in connection with the fire.
Together, Wistow and Mandell represent more than 70 people who were injured or killed in the fire. In recent days, they have filed claims seeking monetary damages for their clients with the Town of West Warwick -- a necessary step before filing suit against the town.
The two Providence lawyers -- and most other plaintiffs' lawyers -- say they have held off filing lawsuits because they need time to determine who should be sued. They say that cannot be done until evidence carted from the site is tested.
Gibney -- the state judge appointed to manage all pretrial stages of the fire cases -- has scheduled a hearing Friday to review testing protocols proposed by Mandell and Wistow and interim associate lead counsel Patrick T. Jones of Boston.
There are 717 pieces of evidence stored in a locked warehouse in Cranston that were collected by investigators hired by the civil lawyers.
The attorney general's office is conducting a separate investigation to determine who, if anyone, should be criminally prosecuted as a result of the fire.
The Feb. 20 fire killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others. It started when the rock band Great White set off pyrotechnics in the nightclub, igniting highly flammable foam that had been installed as soundproofing near the stage.
Currently, there are civil lawsuits pending against numerous defendants -- including the Town of West Warwick, Great White, the manufacturers of the pyrotechnics and the soundproofing foam, and state and local fire inspectors -- in federal court in Providence and New Haven, Conn., and in Superior Court in Providence.
Cunha is the only lawyer who has a suit pending in Superior Court.
