Judge Dismisses Three Defendants In GREAT WHITE Nightclub Case
November 10, 2005The Associated Press has issued the following report:
A federal judge dismissed an insurance company and two other defendants from a civil lawsuit brought by survivors of a deadly 2003 nightclub fire and by relatives of those who died.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux on Wednesday agreed to drop Essex Insurance Company, Multi-State Inspections, Inc. and High Caliber Inspections, Inc. from the case.
Essex is an insurer that provided liability coverage for The Station nightclub in West Warwick. Multi-State and High-Caliber are identified in the complaint as insurance inspection services.
The Feb. 20, 2003, fire, which was spread when a rock band's pyrotechnics ignited flammable foam inside the building, killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others. Eight people who died either lived or worked in Connecticut.
The suit said inspections of the nightclub were done negligently and failed to detect potential safety hazards, fire and building code violations and flammable material.
But Lagueux, in his ruling to dismiss the defendants, said Essex and the two inspection services had no obligation to the plaintiffs to inspect the club.
Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for GREAT WHITE, the rock band on stage at the time of the fire, each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. All three men have pleaded innocent.
Dozens of defendants, including the Derderians, have been sued in federal court over the fire.
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