Estate of Senior Citizen Sues Felicity Tower and Management Company Following Tragic Death of Resident and Near Death of His Wife
Attorneys with Scura, Wigfield, Heyer & Stevens, LLP will represent the plaintiffs in this case.
WAYNE, N.J., May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 13, 2015, Neal A. DiNapoli III tragically discovered the motionless bodies of his grandparents Neal T. DiNapoli Sr. and Immaculate DiNapoli following a routine grocery delivery to their apartment unit at Felicity Tower in Bloomfield, NJ. Felicity Tower is an affordable housing community housing senior citizens 62 and older with approximately 147 apartment units.
According to the filed complaint filed in Essex County, Neal III and his fiancée forced themselves into the apartment after feeling blistering heat coming from the unit. After discovering his grandparents and calling local authorities, Neal III, a high school soccer coach, began CPR on his grandmother and saved her life, while he was unable to save the life of his grandfather. According to the police report, the temperature in the apartment was so hot that emergency personnel were forced to use ice packs and frozen foods from the freezer in the apartment to cool Immaculate DiNapoli's core body temperature. The grandfather's body temperature was found to be approximately 108 degrees by emergency medical personnel.
Following the incident, the plaintiffs' attorneys John Scura III, Esq. and Guillermo Gonzalez, Esq., from the law firm of Scura, Wigfield, Heyer & Stevens, LLP, conducted a preliminary investigation of the apartment unit with an HVAC professional and they discovered the heating & cooling system had no temperature control valve. Depending on the time of the year, management of Felicity Tower fills the heating & cooling coil with hot or cold water to either heat or cool an apartment unit. However, there are not separate coils and only one temperature of water can run at a single time. The plaintiffs allege the system is defective by design, because if a senior citizen resident wants to cool their apartment unit on a warmer day in winter, the heating & cooling system will only expel extreme heat, even if the thermostat is set to cool. The plaintiffs allege that the heating & cooling system cannot self-determine if it is expelling hot air or cool air or automatically shut off if it is getting too hot or cold in the apartment. In this incident, the grandparents of Neil DiNapoli III set the thermostat to cool on a warm December day prior to going to bed for the night, but the heating & cooling unit expelled heat at life threating temperatures, killing Neal T. DiNapoli Sr. and causing permanent injuries to Immaculate DiNapoli.
Plaintiffs' attorneys are currently seeking a court order to immediately inspect Felicity Tower and force ownership and management to fix the heating & cooling system to safeguard its senior residents from future danger. The case is pending in Essex County, NJ and has a docket number of ESX-L-2910-16. The court has signed a preliminary order requiring the defendants to appear and show cause why the heating system should not be fixed and to allow the attorneys in to inspect the main system.
About Scura, Wigfield, Heyer & Stevens, LLP
With offices in Wayne, Hoboken, Hackensack and Newark, New Jersey, our firm has been serving the legal needs of residents and businesses throughout New Jersey since 1972. We place a high priority on keeping lines of communication open between our law firm and our clients. For more information, visit http://www.scura.com.
Media Contact:
John J. Scura III, Esq.
973-696-8391
SOURCE Scura, Wigfield, Heyer & Stevens, LLP
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