Lewis Wiener: Ex-federal prosecutor sues travel company after daughters die in FIRE-TRAP vacation home
HAMPTON, VIRGINIA: A terminally ill father sued a travel company following the death of his two daughters in an $8000-a-week Hampton getaway. Lewis Wiener, former chair of the US Courts of Federal Claims, has accused VRBO, Homeaway.com and property owners Pamela and Peter Miller, of failing to maintain his family’s safety when a fire broke out on August 3, 2022, which killed his daughters Lindsay Elisa Weiner, 19, and Jillian Rose Wiener, 21, the Daily Mail reported.
Wiener, 60, went for a final family vacation after learning that his pancreatic cancer was incurable but tragedy intervened. Aside from Wiener, his wife and his son managed to escape from a second-story window, but both Jilian and Lindsay were trapped in the house. Grieving family members have sought $75,000 for emotional distress, as well as an unspecified amount for economic and medical damages.
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"Rather than fond memories of a week’s vacation on Long Island’s east end, the Wiener family is left with a nightmare from which they cannot wake," the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court states. “The defendants’ greed, corner cutting and willful failure to pay any attention to the safety of the occupants of the property led to the deaths of Jillian Rose Wiener and her sister Lindsay Eliza Wiener,” it added.
A fire chief's report states that the home didn't have any functioning smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. The newly erected outdoor kitchen was not examined by "a competent electrician or other professional to ensure that it satisfied local, state, and national safety standards," according to the lawyers, who also claimed that the house lacked the necessary rental licenses. The Millers were cited for 58 different construction code breaches for their three Spring Lane homes.
However, Wiener's attorneys also attacked Southampton Town for allegedly promoting an illegal rental housing culture in the region. The city was held accountable in the lawsuit, according to attorney Andres Alonso, for "creating, through willful indifference, a known hazard of numerous rental properties in the city of Southampton, including the contested home, which the respondent knew or should have known were being rented out without passing the required safety inspections." According to Alonso, Suffolk County is investigating the fire as a federal crime.
HomeAway.com's owner, VRBO, declined to comment on ongoing legal matters. According to the city's law, those who violate the rental permit law may be sentenced to 15 days in jail or fines between $150 and $1,500. The house is close to Long Beach, has a $1.8 million price tag, and a monthly rent of about $26,000. The house was most recently sold in 2016.
When the fire started, Jilian and Lindsay were sleeping on the second floor. Although their 23-year-old brother Zachary jumped out of a second-floor window, the sisters were unable to escape in time. Jillian, who studied earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan, was about to begin her senior year. While Lindsay, her younger sister, was just a few weeks away from beginning her second year at New Orleans' Tulane University.