PROVIDENCE -- U.S. District Court Judge Ronald R. Lagueux told lawyers in a chambers conference yesterday that he expects to decide by the end of October which court has jurisdiction to hear The Station fire victims' cases, according to two victims' lawyers who attended the conference.
According to lawyers Ronald J. Resmini and Stefanie DiMaio Larivee, Lagueux told those assembled before him that he did not plan to ask a multidistrict panel of judges to decide the jurisdictional issue but would decide himself whether his court or Superior Court, Providence, would hear the civil cases brought by the victims of the nightclub fire.
They said Lagueux also said he would accept input on the jurisdictional question from all parties with an interest in the fire litigation -- and announced that he would accept memoranda from lawyers representing any victim or defendant -- whether they have filed suit yet or have yet been sued, even if the cases have been brought or will be filed in the state court system.
Lagueux, said Resmini, told the lawyers that he planned to hold a hearing in open court after receiving the legal briefs, and that he would then issue a decision, which could potentially be appealed by a dissatisfied party to the multidistrict panel.
The judge scheduled another chambers conference with the lawyers for Aug. 15.
The Feb. 20 fire, in West Warwick, caused the deaths of 100 people and injuries to more than 200 others. The fire broke out after the rock band Great White set off pytrotechnics, which ignited highly flammable packing foam that the nightclub owners had installed as soundproofing.
Five lawsuits have been filed thus far by fire victims or their survivors. Three are currently pending before Lagueux; one, filed on behalf of some Connecticut fire victims, is pending in U.S. District Court in Hartford; and one is pending in Superior Court, Providence. Some plaintiffs and defendants want the cases heard by the federal court; others want the state court system in Rhode Island to hear the cases.
A raft of additional lawsuits is expected to be filed in the next few months in Superior Court, after testing of evidence collected from the charred ruins of the nightclub.
A new federal law, which took effect just 18 days before The Station fire, makes it easier for plaintiffs or defendants to have U.S. District Court hear lawsuits that stem from "accidents" that cause at least 75 deaths. The Station fire may be the first test of the newly enacted statute. Under the new law, as long as one victim is from a state different from where the accident occurred, "any two defendants reside in different states" and any two adverse parties are from different states, the federal court may hear the case.
According to Resmini and Larivee, there were so many lawyers who appeared at yesterday's chambers conference that Lagueux held it in his courtroom.
The two lawyers said the judge suggested that the jurisdictional issue could be simplified if one of the lawyers present at yesterday's conference filed a motion to transfer the Connecticut case to U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. They said William P. Robinson, the Providence lawyer representing Clear Channel Communications, one of the defendants in the fire suits, agreed to file such a motion.
To date, the Connecticut fire victims of the nightclub fire have chosen to bring suit in federal court in that state. But Resmini said yesterday that he had received a letter from a Westerly lawyer, Michael Bradley, who represents a Connecticut man who was hospitalized for more than a month from injuries suffered in the fire. Bradley indicated in the letter that he planned to bring suit in federal court in Providence on behalf of that client, Craig Ballard, of Plainfield.
Ballard went to the Great White concert with his ex-wife, Sarah Jane Telgarsky, who died in the fire. Telgarsky's estate is a plaintiff in the Connecticut federal suit.
