Judge holds landlord responsible in a 2019 electrical Milwaukee fire that killed two people
While public officials slowly mull ideas on how to better protect Wisconsin renters from dangerous apartments, the children of a man who died in a fire in a Milwaukee duplex have tried another way.
They sued the landlord. And won.
And not only did the judge find the landlord’s rental companies to be responsible for the wrongful death but also the landlord, personally.
“What really makes this case different is that we have ensured (the landlord) is not able to hide beyond the corporate entity,” said Justin Padway, an attorney representing Clarence Murrell III and Angel Sodamade, children of Clarence Murrell Jr.
The children are seeking $2 million in damages. A judge is expected to rule on the damages shortly.
Clarence Murrell Jr., 60, and friend Patricia Colston, 53, were killed in 2019 in an early morning fire that investigators said started in electrical wiring behind the walls of the apartment that Colston had rented days earlier from Will Sherard.
Sherard has long been known to regulators in Milwaukee for failing to keep his rental properties up to code. Properties owned by Sherard and his rental companies, including Morocco Investments, had more than 300 electrical code violatons in 2016 through 2020, according to the lawsuit.
The deaths of Murrell and Colston were detailed in a 2021 investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that found electrical fires hit Black renters in Milwaukee’s most distressed neighborhoods the hardest, and little is done to prevent them or hold landlords accountable.
The house near North 14th Street and West Capitol Drive where Murrell and Colston were killed had previous electrical code violations and no evidence on file that Sherard had gotten a permit to have the work fixed, despite the requirement he do so. Having a permit triggers an inspection by electrical experts with the city who can confirm that repairs were properly made.
In a deposition taken of Sherard by Padway in October 2021, Sherard said he didn’t keep track of who did the work on the 15 or 16 rental properties he owned at the time.
Attorney: Who does the repairs to the properties?
Sherard: Whoever I can find to do the repairs. …
Attorney: Do you take their names down?
Sherard: Sometimes. …
Attorney: Do you recall any names of anyone that has worked on Morocco Investments properties?
Sherard: Like I said, they got different names. Or they call with different names. Some is Joe, some is Fred, some is this and that. They call themselves different names.
Attorney: Do you know their last names?
Sherard: No.
Attorney: Do you take a photocopy of their license or any identification card?
Sherard: No.
Attorney: Do they fill out any type of form for you so you understand their background or credentials?
Sherard: No. …
Attorney: When you have people move into your properties, who inspects those properties?
Sherard: I inspect them. …
Attorney: Are you licensed to do electrical work?
Sherard: No
Attorney: Did you do the repair on this electrical work (at the house on North 14th Street)?
Sherard: I don’t remember. …
Attorney: Do you ever do electrical work repairs on any of your properties?
Sherard: I can’t say what I never knew.
Attorney: Do you ever recall doing electrical work at any of your properties?
Sherard: I can’t recall what I never do. I do what I have to do.
Attorney: And if the electrical work needs to be done, you would do that, correct?
Sherard: I don’t know.
More:Electrical fires hit Milwaukee's Black renters hardest. Nobody is held accountable.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge William Sosnay ruled in favor of the Murrell children, awarding them a default judgment in June against Sherard and his real estate companies for negligence, suffering and the wrongful death of their father. The judgment also found Sherard’s real estate companies to be fictitious, existing primarily for fraudulent purposes. Morocco Investments and WJ Sherard Realty didn’t have any employees, bylaws or keep business records. Checks from the companies were frequently made out to Sherard’s family members without providing legitimate basis for the payments, according to the judgment.
The ruling holds Sherard liable for not keeping the property on North 14th Street and its electrical wiring in safe condition and not having working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Robert Meyeroff, Sherard’s attorney, told the Journal Sentinel he withdrew from the case in the summer of 2022 and that he did not want to talk about it.
Reached by phone, Sherard said he was not aware of the judge’s ruling and would not answer questions.
Clarence Murrell III said his dad was a soft-spoken, kind man who loved fixing things and taught his children about God.
“He spent his life dedicated to helping others,” he said.
The younger Murrell said his dad admitted to him not long before his death that he struggled to read.
“I didn’t get to finish teaching him,” the son said. “And he wasn’t done teaching me, either.”
The Milwaukee Common Council and state lawmakers have been considering proposals to beef up safeguards for renters, such as making residential rental inspection programs more feasible for municipalities and requiring landlords to have liability insurance on rental properties.
Sherard told police he did not have insurance on the house on 14th Street. Having insurance makes it more likely that a full investigation will be done into the cause of the fire as insurance companies use electrical engineers and have a vested interest in determining the origin.
The Journal Sentinel’s investigation found that police and fire departments don’t always thoroughly investigate suspected electrical fires and often classify them as accidents with “undetermined” causes. This leaves victims and families with little recourse and keeps communities in the dark as to the extent of the problems.
“This is very important,” Murrell III said of the judge’s ruling and pending decision on damages. “A slumlord being in a position of knowing what you could do and what you should be doing but aren’t, and having people die. I believe he should be set as an example.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge holds landlord responsible for Milwaukee fire that killed two
