PITTSBURGH – A pair of Pittsburgh landlords and the Allegheny County Housing Authority are facing an action for negligence and wrongful death, after the 2-year old son of their tenants fell to his death through an allegedly defective window in 2018.
On May 1, Craig Edwards, administrator of the Estate of Roland Williams Jr. filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas against Michael W. Gestrich and Carol J. Gestrich (doing business as “Liberty Management”) and the Allegheny County Housing Authority. All parties are based in Pittsburgh.
The defendants maintained a residential housing unit in Sharpsburg where Roland resided with his parents, Briana Edwards and Roland Williams Sr., the lawsuit says.
On the third floor of the unit is a room with two windows approximately six inches apart and located nine inches off the floor – which allegedly featured thin horizontal bars, but failed to have protective screens installed.
Despite an inspection taking place in November 2017, the suit says that this defective condition was not remedied.
On June 2, 2018, two-year-old Roland Williams Jr. was playing in the room and leaned against the windowsill in question, causing him to fall out of the window 23 feet to the ground and sustain injuries which proved fatal, the plaintiff claims.
The plaintiff says the defendants are liable for survival and wrongful death, and are seeking medical expenses, funeral expenses, estate expenses and other losses and recoverable damages in excess of $50,000, plus court costs and interest.
The plaintiff is represented by Peter D. Friday, Kevin S. Burger and John K. Bryan of Friday & Cox, in Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-20-005447
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com