Digital Extra: The Station Fire

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, November 17, 2004

It is too soon for Rhode Island to ask that the state fire marshal be dropped from lawsuits in the Station fire civil cases, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

Several federal lawsuits allege that Fire Marshal Irving J. Owens failed to ensure that state fire codes had been properly applied at the West Warwick nightclub where a fire in 2003 claimed 100 lives.

State law bars certain types of lawsuits against state employees -- including the fire marshal -- in cases relating to a state employee's job duties. In those cases, the state is substituted as the defendant in the employee's place. That applies even if the employee made a mistake that led to someone being injured or killed.

But the same law allows state employees to be sued when they intentionally shirk their duties.

The law requires a judge to determine which set of circumstances apply. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux said the case has not progressed far enough for him to have enough information to decide.

Jim Lee, an assistant state attorney general, said Rhode Island probably would refile its request to have the state substituted for the fire marshal when the case is further along.

Lee had argued that the papers filed by plaintiffs in the Station fire cases gave Lagueux enough information to decide. He said the lawsuits allege only that Owens was negligent, not that he intentionally took actions that prevented fire codes from being enforced at the Station nightclub.

Lawyer John P. Barylick, representing several of the plaintiffs, said no one will know what motivated Owens' mistakes -- if he made any -- until lawyers gather more information during the legal process called discovery.