Campus, News

BU parents file wrongful death lawsuit

Witness testimony for a wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed by the family of a Boston University student who died in an apartment fire against her deceased friend’s estate and the apartment’s owners, must be completed by next month for the case to see trial in 2010, lawyers’ said.

Mashpee residents Donna and Donald McCuish, the parents of Rhiannon McCuish, who was visiting friends in an off-campus apartment at 21 Aberdeen St. in South Campus, claim apartment resident Stephen Adelipour caused the Feb. 24, 2007 fire that killed both Adelipour and McCuish, and severely injured a second apartment resident Steven Boursiquot, in a complaint filed Jan. 31, 2008.

The McCuishes claim in the complaint that their daughter’s death was ‘the direct and proximate result of the negligence”by Adelipour, and testimony states Adelipour had disabled a fire alarm in the apartment prior to the fire. Witness reports state Adelipour kept scented candles on his bedroom windowsill, where the Boston Fire Department said the fire started.

Boursiquot also filed a negligence lawsuit against Adelipour and Barrington Reality Trust, the apartment’s owner on April 22, 2008. Evidence and testimony gathering for the two cases has been consolidated and must be completed by Feb. 16, said William Thompson, the lawyer representing Boursiquot.’

Though Adelipour is deceased, he is listed as the defendant in the lawsuits because he does not have an open estate, Thompson said.

‘The estate of Mr. Adelipour is basically insured through his parents,’ Thompson said. ‘It’s a suit against Mr. Adelipour, but it’s the insurance company that will basically be backing this all up.’

The night of the fire, Adelipour, Boursiquot and McCuish returned to the Aberdeen Street apartment from An Tua Nua Bar around 1:30 a.m. and found the power was out, according to a police report. The students and a few other guests lit candles and continued to drink and socialize.

Witness reports state the party eventually disbursed, leaving Adelipour, McCuish and Boursiquot alone in the apartment. The Boston Police Department responded to a radio call at 5:15 a.m. and found that BFD, BU Police Department and EMS were already on scene. EMTs pronounced Adelipour, 22, and McCuish, 21, dead at 6:47 a.m., and Boursiquot was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in critical condition, according to the incident report.

Boursiquot suffered third-degree burns on 20 percent of his body, smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning and the loss of two toes on his right foot, according to his suit’s complaint.

Thompson said Bourqiuot has also suffered from scarring and loss of memory and cognitive ability.

Richard Park, a 2007 graduate who lived in the apartment but was not present at the time of the fire, said Adelipour had removed the apartment’s smoke detector battery about two months before the fire, according to sworn testimony provided April 24, 2008.

The smoke detector, the only one in the apartment, was ‘pretty sensitive’ and went off ‘three, four times’ a month whenever ‘it got smoky,’ Park said in the testimony. The building’s alarm was located between Park, Adelipour and Boursiquot’s apartment and the building’s other third floor apartment.

Thompson said the cost of Boursiquot’s continuing medical needs has necessitated him to take action against Adelipour and the apartment owner.

‘Mr. Boursiquot and Mr. Adelipour, they were friends, they were roommates,’ Thompson said. ‘Steven Boursiquot and his family recognize that this is a tragedy for many people, but Steven has had enormous medical care and is going to continue. He will never be the same.’

The McCuish court complaint states the Barrington Realty Trust ‘negligently controlled and maintained’ the apartment and failed to provide ‘adequate and operational smoke and fire detection devices.’

The Boursiquot complaint states the Trust’s negligence of the apartment caused Boursiquot’s injuries and that trustee Barbara Ellman ‘breached her express and implied warranties by failing to provide and maintain proper electricity and by failing to maintain the smoke alarms.’

Leonard and Barbara Ellman, both trustees of Barrington Realty Trust, have called on Boursiquot as a third-party defendant in the case they face against the McCuishes. They are also in the process of calling on Park as a third-party defendant for both McCuish and Boursiquot lawsuits.

Anthony Antonellis, lawyer for Barrington Realty Trust, declined to comment on the case.

Alan Cantor, lawyer for the McCuishes, was unavailable for comment at press time, despite several calls and emails made to his office.

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