Cervantes, Leonard P

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Cervantes, Leonard P

Criminal Law

Wrongful Death
Wrongful death of minor, apartment fire, failure to install and properly maintain smoke detectors; Plaintiff is the mother of decedent Nathan Irvin, who was about 3 years old at the time of his death. Plaintiff had rented a two-story townhouse at 2637 Vanity Fair Drive in St. Louis with her four children. Plaintiff claimed that on Sunday, May 5, 2002 she and three of her children, her baby Natalee and her sons Markus, age 8, and Nathan, age 3, were on the second story and her daughter Morgan, age 6, was on the first floor watching television in the living room. Plaintiff claimed that Morgan left the living room briefly and when she returned about five minutes later, she discovered a fire in the loveseat. She ran upstairs to tell her mother, Angela Brannon, grabbed the baby and ran back downstairs with Morgan and Markus. She attempted to put out the fire, but it quickly escalated out of control and she told Morgan to run to a neighbor for help. When Morgan opened the door, oxygen fueled the fire and all of them were forced to flee out the front door. When they were outside, they realized that Nathan was still upstairs and screaming for help. Plaintiff tried to go back into the townhouse, but the fire was too intense and blocked the stairwell to the second floor. The Moline Fire Protection District arrived at the scene within three minutes and rescued Nathan from the second floor, but he died at Christian Hospital about an hour later due to smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. Plaintiff claimed the townhouse had only one smoke detector, which was located on the second floor at the top of the stairs. This was in violation of the applicable BOCA code and St. Louis County Building Maintenance code that required landlords to install an operable smoke detector on every floor of a multi-story townhouse. Further, plaintiff alleged that when she replaced the battery in that smoke detector at the end of October 2001, it did not function properly and she reported that to the maintenance department for the apartments. Maintenance records showed that the smoke detector was inspected and the battery was replaced again, but the smoke detector was not replaced. Plaintiff asserted that at no time during the fire incident did the smoke detector sound. The firemen found only one smoke detector at the scene, located at the top of the stairs on the second floor and testified that it was not activated at the time of the fire. Plaintiff claimed that if there had been a properly working smoke detector on the first floor where the fire started, as required by law, she would have had enough time to safely evacuate all of her children.Defendant Carmel Group, LLC owned the building and defendant Woodknoll General Partnership, LLC was the management company. Defendants denied negligence and contended that an insurance investigator hired by defendants' insurance company inspected the property several days after the fire and located and retrieved the smoke detector o

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