2nd lawsuit filed over mall roof collapse

• Tweet

TORONTO, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A second lawsuit related to the collapse of an Ontario shopping mall roof was filed Tuesday in Toronto by families of the two women crushed to death.

The families of Doloris Perizzolo, 74, and Lucie Aylwin, 37, are seeking $11.25 million in punitive damages. They allege various people and companies were negligent, the QMI Agency reported.

On June 23, the rooftop parking lot of the Algo Center Mall in Elliot Lake in northern Ontario came crashing down, killing the women and injuring 22 others.

One of the lawyers representing the families, Roger Oatley, told reporters in Toronto mall owners had ordered an inspection of the building after complaints of roof leaks and an engineering firm had declared it "structurally sound" before it collapsed.

"These deaths are a senseless, needless loss that should never have happened," Oatley said. "This is Canada, not some unregulated third-world country. The building should have been built according to code.

The suit names the mall's owners and management and the engineering firm that inspected it.

In July, a $30 million class-action lawsuit was also filed against them, as well as the city and province.