Three women are suing the owner of the Berkeley apartment where a balcony collapsed last June, killing six people and injuring seven.
According to RTÉ, they are suing the property owners and managers, citing that the wooden balcony of 405 Library Gardens was water damaged prior to the tragedy and that those responsible for the upkeep of the apartment knew it was dangerous.
They have alleged that there were reports of mushrooms growing on the deck and a year prior to the tragedy, there had been reports of the balcony tilting away from the apartment.
Legal papers filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County state that the trio had rented the apartment two weeks before its collapse.
The women watched their “dearest friends plummet to the ground below” and this led to “severe emotional and mental injuries from which they have not recovered”.
They have said that these “injuries, damages, losses and harms” would never have happened if the property owners and management had complied with the “standard of care in their profession”.
