Casting a wide net of blame in their response to a lawsuit filed as a result of a deadly January 2009 apartment fire, the owners of the complex list the victims as having been partly responsible for their own deaths.

Responding to the wrongful death lawsuit filed in December by the families of the three young women killed in the blaze, Dial Equities and Bradford Schools Inc., doing business as International Business College, listed, among others, an “unidentified arsonist,” a local design firm, the manufacturers of the electrical wiring and fire alarms, and the three women themselves as having contributed to the fire.

Dial Equities is the parent company of the Willows of Coventry apartment complex on the western edge of Fort Wayne. International Business College, just a few blocks away, rented entire apartment buildings from Dial Equities to use as student housing.

Mark Matthes, an attorney for the victims’ families, said blaming others, even the victims, is a common legal tactic but one he hoped they would not use.

“Blaming the girls is a rough path to take,” Matthes said. “I wish they hadn’t.”

Indiana law asks juries in certain civil cases to determine “comparative fault” to figure out who is most responsible for the damage done and who is responsible in lesser degrees until it totals 100 percent of fault. But it works only if defendants name other parties as being at least partly responsible.

If a jury awards damages to the plaintiffs, each party – named and unnamed – is responsible for a certain percentage of the total. And if the plaintiff never files additional complaints against the parties identified by the defendants, the plaintiff cannot collect money from those parties.

About 5 a.m. Jan. 23, 2009, a fire broke out in the apartment shared by Jennifer Spurgeon, 19, of Winamac; Lara Punches, 19, of Defiance, Ohio; and Renae Patton, 18, of Ottawa, Ohio.

The women were trapped in the master bathroom of their second-story apartment and were unconscious when firefighters pulled them from the blaze. All three died from smoke inhalation within three weeks of the fire, which was attributed to a faulty electrical outlet.

In the lawsuit filed late last year, the families allege the school and the complex neglected to provide reasonably safe housing for the students. They also allege the defendants failed to provide operational smoke detectors in every bedroom and in the main living area, as well as functioning and safe electrical outlets, and an evacuation plan.

They also claim the defendants failed to rehearse an evacuation plan or engage in evacuation training, offer student housing that meets applicable fire and building codes and provide a fire-suppression system.

Dial Equities denies owning the building where the fire broke out and denied leasing units to the schools. Bradford Schools denies leasing the space as well.

As they listed others who might have been culpable in the fire, both companies also listed the city of Fort Wayne Communications and the Allen County Building Department. Spokespeople for both Fort Wayne and Allen County declined to comment on the pending litigation.

And the companies name the three victims as having contributed to their own deaths.

In the initial lawsuit, attorneys for the families argued that the school should have done more to keep the students safe, such as conducting regular fire drills and providing escape routes.

Those would have directly benefited the three victims, Matthes said.

“The whole point of our complaint, … (is) that a lot of things that we think should have been done weren’t done,” Matthes said.

“I’m not saying that these girls panicked, but it’s hard to judge the girls looking back,” he said. “You weren’t in a fire in a dark room, covered with smoke and in a fire where you can’t breathe.”

Attorneys for the defendants either declined to comment for this story or could not be reached for comment.

rgreen@jg.net