DAVENPORT, Iowa — Andrew Wold, two of his LLCs, the City of Davenport and what appears to be a former Davenport inspector are the defendants in the latest lawsuit filed following the partial collapse of 324 Main Street.
Filed on Friday, this class action lawsuit represents 4th Street Nutrition and four residents. 4th Street Nutrition had just opened its doors in February of this year and was located on the ground floor of the collapsed building.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants neglected to keep the building in proper living condition and keep its residents safe from potential and existing hazards.
The lawsuit also details the items lost in the disaster, including the ashes of one survivor's father and another's grandmother. Each resident listed had damages in excess of $10,000 while 4th Street Nutrition had damages in excess of $20,000 combined. The plaintiffs are represented by Brubaker, Flynn & Darland, a Davenport-based law firm.
This suit identifies key dates when Davenport Chief Building Inspector Trishna R. Pradhan issued a Notice of Public Hazard to the Davenport Hotel LLC. The notice from Feb. 2 of this year declared the building posed a public hazard by identifying that "part of the south-west wall has been gradually failing."
The notice said that the failure is seen "to continue on the inside wythes of brick masonry" and "there is visible crumbling of this exterior load bearing wall under the support beam." The notice also says part of the southwest wall had been gradually falling. The date of that report is the same as the report from Select Structural Engineering.
The class action suit says a notice to vacate the building came on Feb. 10 following an inspection the day before. However, additional documents from Davenport specify that the notice to vacate was only for one unit due to a lack of heating.
Since it is a class action, the plaintiffs would be "representative of and on behalf of all others similar situated," or those who were tenants in the building at the time of the collapse. The plaintiffs petitioned for the class action to be certified and if done so by the court, it will maintain the class action aspect of the suit, according to Iowa's Rules of Civil Procedure.
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