(NOLA) Saenger Theatre manager pursues class-action suit against Hard Rock Hotel developers

https://www.nola.com/news/article_466dfe90-f423-11e9-a79e-a72ac7b2da54.html

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

A manager at the Saenger Theatre is pursuing a class-action lawsuit against those in charge of building the adjacent, half-finished Hard Rock Hotel, whose collapse Oct. 12 not only killed and injured construction workers but also forced nearby businesses to close and residents to be displaced. The suit filed individually by Kerri Brunson joins a series of other complaints seeking damages from the main players of the ill-fated construction project, which authorities say is still unstable.

However, while most of the other suits so far come from workers who were injured at the site when the top floors suddenly collapsed, Brunson’s demands compensation for owners of businesses whose operations were interrupted by the catastrophe. It additionally aims to make employees of those businesses whole, as well as residents who haven’t been able to get back to their homes after the collapse closed an area surrounding the busy intersection of Canal and North Rampart streets to traffic.

The suit, filed Oct. 16, hasn’t received approval to proceed as a class action. But it argues that Brunson and other potential plaintiffs are owed for “past, present and future” inconvenience and loss of income, among additional damages. A spokeswoman for the consortium in charge of the hotel development didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Brunson’s suit Monday. Previously, the consortium, 1031 Canal Development LLC, has issued statements offering sympathies to all affected by the collapse.

The collapse of the upper floors of the unfinished Hard Rock Hotel killed three workers and sent numerous others to area hospitals. Investigators haven’t publicly identified cause for the collapse. But, in their lawsuits some injured workers have accused those in charge of the project of using inadequate materials and supports at the job site while ignoring complaints from worried laborers.