Class action lawsuit claims negligence led to collapse

No one may have been able to predict where and when the Algo Centre roof would collapse, but the fact that it was in poor condition and needed corrective action should have been apparent to those in a position to take action, alleges lawyer Doug Elliott.

Elliott, of the law firm Roy Elliott O'Connor (REO), joins lawyer Roland Aube from Elliot Lake, and Jeff Broadbent with the law firm Feifel Broadbent Gualazzi in Sault Ste. Marie in representing Jack and Elaine Quinte, owners of Hungry Jack's Restaurant in the Algo Centre, in a $30-million class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit has been filed in the Superior Court of Justice and names as defendants the Government of Ontario, the City of Elliot Lake, Robert Nazarian, the owner of the Algo Centre Mall, and an unknown engineer who allegedly approved the structure of the mall a short time prior to the collapse.

“It was a horrifying experience, and I still suffer loss of sleep and I get overcome with emotion whenever I think of the events of the day.”

That was one of the comments made by Elaine Quinte on July 6 in Elliot Lake when she and her husband joined Elliott to launch the lawsuit on behalf of people hurt in the fatal collapse.

“I began to be struck by falling debris myself as my employee and I raced to get out of the area, terrified that we were going to be killed,” Elaine Quinte told reporters at the press conference. “This has been a terrible thing for me and for my husband and for our employees who are now out of work. I feel terrible for them; of course, I feel terrible for Mrs. Perizzolo's family and to the family of Lucie Aylwin. We are going to do our best in our own small way to try and get justice for them and for all the people who were affected by this disaster.”

They are claiming negligence on the parts of the defendants named in the lawsuit led to the death of Lucie Aylwin and Doloris Perizzolo, as well as the injuries to many others. The defendants, as stated in the lawsuit, knew or ought to have known that the deterioration of the mall's structure posed a serious risk to the health and safety.

“About one year ago, a large piece of concrete came crashing through the roof of the Hungry Jack’s Restaurant, narrowly missing my wife, Elaine,” Jack Quinte said. “We brought this dangerous situation to the attention of the mall management and the city of Elliot Lake. We were not aware of any corrective action being taken by either.”

Nazarian has been named personally because he was aware of the problems with the roof and was in a position to correct them and did not do so effectively, the lawsuit alleges. Furthermore, the Ministry of Labour had been in to inspect the site several times because it posed a threat to the people working in the mall area, and the lawsuit claims that the work done by the Ministry of Labour was ineffective.

The City of Elliot Lake is named because of its role in inspecting buildings and its powers to require remedial action with respect to the conditions in the mall.

Elliott said he was told there was an engineering company that provided a report in the last year that said that the roof was in sound condition; however, “we believe that the conditions that lead to the collapse had been present for a considerable amount of time, and that careful engineering inspection ought to have revealed the imminent danger of collapse that was present.”

A former resident of Elliot Lake, this particular case has a lot of personal strings attached to it for Elliott, who said he was shocked but not surprised by the collapse of the Algo Centre Mall roof.

“In my opinion, this was a preventable tragedy. There were plenty of warnings that trouble was coming. The Algo Centre Mall had repeated problems with its roof before the collapse. Indeed, the results speak for themselves. We believe if they had been more diligent, two people would not have died, and more than 20 other people would not have been injured.”

Elliott also said the people hurt by the disaster should also not have to wait for a verdict in the lawsuit before getting any compensation.

“The people of Elliot Lake should not have to wait years for this case to make its way through the courts; they should get compensation now. The province can then look to others who have been careless and may be in a position to contribute, and get reimbursed by them later.

“The Ontario government is in a position to do the right thing,” Elliott added, “and set up a compensation scheme in the coming weeks and months that will look after the people and the businesses affected, the people who have died or been injured, and the people who have been psychologically traumatized and the employees who have been out of work.”

Posted by Arron Pickard