Lawsuit Filed Against Salvation Army In Building Collapse


Several personal injury lawsuits have been filed by victims of the June 5th building collapse that killed six and injured more than a dozen, with the main targets of the suits being building owner Richard Basciano and demolition contractor Griffin Campbell. But on Tuesday, the first suit was filed against the Salvation Army, which owned and operated the adjacent thrift store destroyed in the collapse.

60-year-old West Philadelphia resident Shirley Ball was shopping in the Salvation Army that morning and was injured in the accident. Below, some excerpts from her suit, which also names Basciano and Campbell, among others:

…Defendants knew or should have known that the demolition project created a huge crack in the walls of the structure of its retail store, permitting one to see daylight through the crack inside the store… the huge crack in the structure of its retail store created a hazardous, dangerous, and defective condition…

Despite knowledge of the defect on the Premises, Defendants negligently, carelessly and recklessly continued to operate its retail store at 2140 Market Street for weeks during the demolition project…

Defendants did not take reasonable and timely measures to appropriately correct and/or repair and/or warn the authorities of the unreasonably dangerous and defective conditions caused by the demolition, or to warn those lawfully on the Premises about the unreasonable dangerous conditions which Defendants permitted to exist. Nor did the defendants close the store.

The Salvation Army is a Christian organization with an annual income of over $2 billion.