An Atlanta apartment complex on the hook for $140 million after a tenant died in a 2017 blaze has asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to void the “extraordinarily high” verdict awarded to the tenant’s family.
Venetian Hills Apartments argued it cannot be liable for the death of George Hughes in a fire deliberately started in his unit by a woman invited there by Hughes’ roommate. The roommate sexually assaulted the woman, who set the fire in retaliation, Venetian Hills’ attorney, Laurie Webb Daniel, told the court Thursday.
“We’re talking about arson triggered by sexual assault,” Webb Daniel said. “That’s not foreseeable.”
Webb Daniel said Venetian Hills had no duty to protect Hughes against the criminal conduct of the woman, who was charged with arson and pleaded guilty. She said the landlord deserves a new trial.
But Naveen Ramachandrappa, an attorney for Hughes’ family, said the fire would never have become fatal if Venetian Hills had smoke detectors, fire alarms or a sprinkler system. The fire spread over 20 minutes or so before killing the 63-year-old, Ramachandrappa said.
“The claim in this case is not failure to prevent arson or prevent sexual assault,” he said. “It’s failure to have fire safety. What could be more foreseeable if you don’t have smoke alarms and a sprinkler system?”
Hughes died in March 2017 at the troubled apartment complex, which for years was the subject of complaints about crime and substandard conditions, city code enforcement and police records show.
Ramachandrappa said Venetian Hills decided in 2012 to operate the complex as an illegal rooming house and “violated every code that there is.” He said the landlord flouted fire safety requirements despite its duty to maintain a safe complex.
“There was no compliance with any of the building codes,” he said.
Webb Daniel said Hughes and the other tenants of Venetian Hills were aware it lacked fire safety equipment, so they were on notice of the associated hazard. She said the absence of smoke detectors and the like does not give rise to arson.
Georgia’s new lawsuit-limiting legislation also prohibits the kind of arguments made by attorneys for the Hughes family to inflame the jury, Webb Daniel said. And she said the jury received confusing and misleading instructions from the trial judge about the relevant law.
“To be sure, death by fire is horrible,” she said. “The $140 million verdict in this case however is multiples above horrible.”
The verdict was reached in December 2023 and was the largest in Georgia that year, according to TopVerdict.com, which publishes the largest verdicts in each state as reported by attorneys.
The appeals court is expected to issue a decision in the coming months.
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