Landlord’s Negligence Claimed : Tenants of Burned-Out Slum Hotel File Suit

Tenants of a burned-out slum hotel sued their landlords Monday for $20 million, claiming the fire that destroyed the Brooklyn Hotel and injured all 18 inhabitants was caused by owner negligence.

The lawsuit filed by attorney Donald H. Cohen on behalf of the Latino tenants was the latest legal move in a mounting assault in Los Angeles courts on slum landlords.

Cohen appeared on the courthouse steps with Miguel Cortez, a plaintiff who suffered a broken leg when he jumped from a second-story window during the fire July 23 at the East Los Angeles hotel.

Cohen said residents were forced to jump out of windows because they feared a vicious guard dog that roamed the stairs of the building. He also said some tenants were almost imprisoned in the burning building because bars installed by the landlords on the windows could not be pushed outward.

“Some people suffered two broken legs; others had neurological damage and psychological damage,” Cohen said, but none is still hospitalized.

Infested With Vermin

He said the tenants, who come from Mexico, Cuba and Central America, were paying an average of $600 a month for a single room in the building, which often lacked hot water and was infested with vermin.

The attorney claimed that the owners allowed some rooms to be rented by the hour and said those were used for drug and prostitution activities.

“We haven’t talked to the owners, because we can’t find them,” Cohen said. “The home addresses of the owners are not listed in any public documents.”

The lawsuit identifies the owners as Yogush Kumar Patel, Ratilal H. Patel, Rahul H. Patel and Rahul Kumar R. Patel.

The lawsuit, which seeks $100,000 in actual damages per plaintiff and $1 million in punitive damages per plaintiff, alleges that the owners were motivated by “economic greed” and were aware that the hotel had substandard living conditions but did nothing to correct it.

Various Problems

Among alleged violations were inadequate, inoperative fire alarms, fire extinguishers, fire hoses and sprinkler system, as well as the barred windows and unsafe fire exits.

Cohen said the tenants who were injured were also left with no place to live, because the building is now a burned-out shell. He said they are being temporarily housed in dwellings provided by social service agencies. He said the fire has tentatively been attributed to arson, but a final report has not been issued on the cause.

Last April, Michael Schaefer, a former San Diego city councilman now living in Baltimore, was ordered to pay $1.83 million to former tenants who complained that he let his apartment house deteriorate until it was overrun with rats, cockroaches and street-gang members.

Also in April, another set of residents with complaints similar to those lodged against Schaefer sued landlord Lance J. Robbins and associates for $10 million. That case is pending.

And last month, neurosurgeon Milton Avol was ordered to serve nine months in county jail for failure to correct about 40 violations in downtown apartment houses. Avol, who is appealing, has since sold two of the three buildings, his attorney, Dale Alberstone, said.