PHILADELPHIA – A Wyncote apartment tenant has sued one of her neighbors and the property management companies operating the building in which the parties lived for negligence, stemming from a cooking-related fire which took place two years ago and which the plaintiff says seriously injured her.
Yujin Chung of Philadelphia filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on June 12 versus Lindy Property Management Company and Lindy-Wyncote, LP (doing business as The Towers At Wyncote), both of Jenkintown, plus Fairfield Wyncote, LLC (doing business as The Towers At Wyncote) and Gemini Gohil, both of Wyncote.
On the day in question, defendant, Gemini Gohil, was a tenant of The Towers at Wyncote and was the leaseholder and occupant of Apartment No. 1129-1 on the 11th floor of Tower One, while the plaintiff resided in Apartment No. 1136 on the same exact floor in the very same building.
“On June 13, 2015, at approximately 12:00 p.m. a grease fire started in the kitchen of Apartment No. 1129-1 of Tower One of The Towers at Wyncote, which caused the 11th floor of Tower One, to fill with a large amount of smoke. At the time that the fire started, plaintiff was located inside her apartment and did not hear any fire or smoke alarms of any kind prior to detecting the smoke with her own senses. Plaintiff then called 911 and attempted to leave the apartment but found the hallway completely inundated with thick, black smoke. Because plaintiff was unable to safely leave her apartment, she was instructed to remain inside her apartment, lie on the ground, and wait for firefighters. While plaintiff awaited rescue, she was forced to breathe smoke for an extended period of time, causing serious personal injuries. In addition, plaintiff suffered emotional distress and trauma as a result of her ordeal,” the suit read.
Numerous fire companies were summoned to extinguish the blaze, which would later be classified as a three-alarm fire.
“As a direct and proximate result of the foregoing incident and defendants’ negligence and carelessness, plaintiff, Yujin Chung, sustained painful and severe injuries which include, but are not limited to, smoke inhalation, carboxyhemoglobinemia, pneumonia, and generalized anxiety disorder,” the suit states.
According to Chung, the property management defendants were collectively negligent in a failure to provide, install or maintain adequate smoke detectors and fire suppression systems in a residential property, failure to provide a fire safety plan to tenants of that property failure to provide a system to warn or alarm residents to an emergency situation, and Gohil was negligent in a failure to take proper precautions and due care while cooking, failure to prevent the ignition of a grease fire, failure to timely and properly extinguish a fire in her apartment, etc.
For multiple counts of negligence, the plaintiff is seeking damages not in excess of $50,000, plus interest, costs and any other relief which the Court may deem just and fair in this matter.
The plaintiff is represented by Jay L. Solnick and Thomas J. McTear of Solnick & Associates, in Jenkintown.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 170601224
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com