Bridgetown.
The families of Kelly Ann Welch, Kellishaw Olivierre, Tiffany Harding, Pearl Cornelius, Nikkita Belgrave and Shanna Griffith who lost their lives a fire at the Campus Trendz store at Tudor Street, Bridgetown, on September 3, 2010 are filing several unlawful deaths suits seeking compensation for their loss.
With the relevant three year statutory limitation period due to elapse on September 3, the anniversary of six women deaths, attorney-at-law David Comissiong announced the court action today.
The suits, which seek an unspecified amount of monetary damages, will be filed against Renaldo Anderson Alleyne, who was sentenced to six life sentences after pleading guilty last year, Jamar Dewayne Orlando Bynoe, who is in prison awaiting trial on six counts of murder, the owner of the clothing store, and the owner of the Tudor Street, Bridgetown building in which the victims met their deaths.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday in his capacity as Chairman of the September Third Foundation to announce plans to commemorate the third anniversary of the tragedy, Comissiong said the statutory limitation period for filing lawsuits in the case of unlawful death is three years. Therefore the statutory limitation period would expire on September 3, this year.
“Lawsuits will be filed before then, and the lawsuits will target not only the issue of the two young men who committed the criminal act of manslaughter, but also the fact that the building in which the Campus Trendz Store was being carried on did not have a fire escape and that the business itself in which these young women were employed was being carried on without a fire-escape in place.”
He explained that individual civil suits would be filed by individual families and that the claimants could be relatives including parents and siblings who have suffered loss of guidance, companionship, care, or who might have suffered emotional and psychological injury and loss.
Comissiong said the suit would target Jamar Dewayne Orlando Bynoe and Renaldo Anderson Alleyne, who were both charged for setting the store ablaze, the owner of the building and proprietor of the store.
