The families of five people who were killed last month when their southwest Missouri group home caught fire filed wrongful death lawsuits Friday against the home and its operators, claiming they were negligent for not maintaining key safety equipment.
Three former residents who were injured in the Nov. 27 blaze also filed negligence suits against Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc., owners Robert and Laverne Dupont, and administrator Shirley Brannon.
The suits, filed in McDonald County Circuit Court, allege that River of Life Ministries failed to fix known maintenance problems in the building, should have maintained a properly working fire alarm and installed a sprinkler system.
The fire killed 11 people and injured two dozen others. Investigators have not determined an exact cause but have said improper wiring in the attic may be to blame.
The suits were filed by the families of Nathan Fisher, Isaiah Joyce, Patricia Henson, Mark Ober and Amy Brown, who were killed in the fire.
Former residents Charles Davis, Earl Story and William Gandy filed their own suits, claiming the fire caused extensive injuries and destroyed their personal property.
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages.
Robert Dupont said he and his wife hadn’t yet seen the lawsuits and couldn’t comment. Brannon, who lives in Wyandotte, Okla., couldn’t be reached for comment.
In the past, Robert Dupont has disagreed with investigators’ theory of faulty wiring causing the fire, saying past state inspections of the attic did not detect any problems.
The Anderson home was exempt from sprinkler requirements, as are 61 percent of Missouri’s 626 residential care facilities, the state Department of Health and Senior Services said.
But Aaron Smith, who is representing all the plaintiffs, said operators should have taken more care because many of the group home’s residents had physical or mental disabilities.
“You have to look at these things with common sense,” Smith said. “You have people in this facility who can’t react to an emergency as normal people would. Any reasonable person is going to have a sprinkler system in that facility.”
At least one other civil lawsuit has been filed against the home and the Duponts about the fire. The parents and wife of 19-year-old staff member Glen Taff, who died in the fire, filed a wrongful death suit on Dec. 5, also alleging negligence over faulty wiring and lack of a sprinkler system.
The office of Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon also has filed suit, claiming the owners and operators illegally concealed Robert Dupont’s involvement with the business. That suit also alleges violations of Missouri’s false claims law, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
State law barred Dupont from running long-term care facilities and participating in the Medicaid program because of a 2003 federal sentence in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup $689,491 in Medicaid payments made to River of Life Ministries, plus damages of about $2.1 million and an unspecified civil penalty for each Medicaid billing the state considers fraudulent.