Judge rules ex-owners of collapsed Davenport apartments may be liable, lets case continue

A judge overseeing one of the numerous lawsuits over the partial collapse of a Davenport apartment building in May has refused to dismiss claims against a former owner of the building.

The Davenport, a 116-year-old former hotel in downtown Davenport, suffered a partial collapse on May 28, killing three residents. Subsequent investigations found that inadequate maintenance and improper shoring of a load-bearing brick exterior wall allowed it to collapse, bringing down part of the steel framework it was meant to support. The rest of the building was subsequently demolished.

At least seven lawsuits from former residents, most of whom lost all the possessions they left in the building, have been filed against building owner Andrew Wold, various engineering contractors, the city and other defendants. Wold has filed his own lawsuit blaming an engineering company for failing to alert him to the risk of collapse.

Wold purchased the building in June 2021, but several plaintiffs have also brought claims against the former owner and managers of the building, Waukee Investments and Parkwild Properties.

The companies filed a motion to dismiss those claims, arguing they no longer owned the property and thus had no liability to tenants, but a judge on Monday denied that request, allowing the case to continue.

Did fresh paint cover up defects?

The filing comes in the suit filed by Lexus and Quanishia "Peach" Berry, who were home in their fourth-floor apartment when the collapse occurred. Lexus Berry escaped, but her wife was trapped in the rubble and rescuers eventually had to amputate one of her legs to pull her free.

The Berrys have accused Wold of knowingly failing to address the dangerous condition of the wall in the nearly two years he owned the building, but also alleged that before selling the property to Wold in 2021, Waukee and Parkwild covered the west wall with a fresh coat of red paint to “hide the obviously dilapidated and deteriorating condition of the brick façade.”

Parkwild and Waukee responded that the condition of the wall was obvious when they sold the building. They also argued that the Berrys cannot both blame Wold for knowing about and failing to fix the problem, and the previous owners for concealing it.

'What they knew, when they knew it'

Judge Mark Lawson found that, at least at this stage, the case can continue against the former ownership group because the Berrys have plausibly claimed they may have intentionally concealed the problem.

"While the deteriorating condition of the west façade was obvious, the internal, structural condition of the wall and the steel beams it supported were not as obvious from a visual inspection," Lawson wrote.

Once the parties begin exchanging evidence in discovery, Lawson said, it will become more clear whether the former owners actually intended to conceal the damage to the wall, and whether Wold was aware of it when he bought the building.

"What the Wold entities knew, when they knew it, and whether they should have done more to investigate, repair, and warn tenants, will be the subject of discovery in this case," he wrote.

Lawson also rejected a separate motion by numerous defendants to dismiss the Berrys' claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress. He ruled that Lexus Berry's statement that she watched her wife fall four stories, and believed her likely dead or seriously injured, is adequate to support a claim for emotional distress.

Plaintiffs' attorney applauds ruling

An attorney for Waukee and Parkwild did not respond to a message Tuesday seeking comment. Attorney Andrew Stroth, representing the Berrys, said in an email that evidence suggests Waukee Investments "purposefully painted the wall … to conceal some of the defects" among other lapses in maintenance before selling the property to Wold.

"What happened on May 28 was a completely preventable tragedy," Stroth said. "Lives were lost, families impacted and our client Peach Berry almost died after seven hours trapped in the building."

Next up in the morass of litigation over the Davenport building collapse is a motion in another lawsuit to consolidate all the pending suits for purposes of pretrial discovery and motions. A hearing on that proposal is set for Friday.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ex-owners of collapsed Davenport apartment lose motion to dismiss