Digital Extra: The Station Fire

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 26, 2005

BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal Staff Writer

A federal judge has dismissed some of the allegations against Channel 12 in lawsuits arising from The Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people. The TV station remains a defendant in the suits.

Two Channel 12 employees were in the nightclub when it caught fire on Feb. 20, 2003. Club co-owner Jeffrey A. Derderian was a reporter for WPRI-TV. Camera operator Brian Butler was shooting footage for a story on public building safety in the wake of a stampede at a Chicago nightclub several days earlier that killed 21 people.

Judge Ronald R. Lagueux's 19-page ruling, dated Tuesday, dealt only with Derderian and what he did at the nightclub that night, not with Butler.

"This decision does not affect the status of the allegations against Brian Butler, or the allegations against WPRI that are derived from its employment relationship with Brian Butler," the judge wrote.

Lagueux said that Derderian's role as a reporter and his role as nightclub co-owner had to be separated to determine whether Channel 12 was responsible for Derderian's actions.

The judge ruled that a TV reporter would have no legal duty to eliminate dangerous conditions in a nightclub or to warn patrons of those dangers. Because a reporter has no such duty, his employer cannot be held responsible for what happens as a result of those dangerous conditions, Lagueux ruled.

"It was not Jeffrey Derderian, in his capacity as an investigative reporter, who was responsible for any of the destructive forces that contributed to the fire. He was merely present," the judge wrote.

"No actions taken by Jeffrey Derderian as landlord of The Station and owner of DERCO LLC, are attributable to WPRI because none of those actions were taken in the furtherance of the business of WPRI, or with the express or implied authority of WPRI. WPRI is only vicariously liable for actions taken or not taken by Jeffrey Derderian in his capacity as investigative reporter for the television station."