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A resident of the senior living affordable Rosemont Court in North Portland, where 14 seniors have become ill, one fatally, with airborne Legionnaires’ disease since the beginning of the year, filed a class action lawsuit Oct. 18 against the property manager.
It’s the second lawsuit within a week filed by a tenant against Income Property Management, which manages the building. (WW reported the first at wweek.com.) This one is a class-action suit—the plaintiff, Esther Lewis, is demanding the property manager refund all rent paid by residents since the year began.
What the lawsuit says: Lewis, who filed the lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges Income Property Management, a Portland company that manages 168 buildings in Oregon and Southwest Washington, failed to protect residents on North Dekum Street from their own water supply.
“Over the past year, defendant has failed to maintain North Portland’s Rosemont Court senior living center in a safe and habitable condition,” the lawsuit alleges. “Defendant’s failure to provide a safe water supply to the center has killed one senior and sickened over a dozen others with Legionnaires’ disease.”
The plaintiff is filing the claim for herself and other residents “who experienced a diminution in rental value caused by defendant’s failure to maintain Rosemont Court in a safe and habitable condition.”
The lawsuit further alleges management failed to “timely and adequately inspect for Legionella, adequately test for Legionella on a regular periodic basis, adequately and timely warn tenants about the presence of Legionella, adequately and timely remediate Legionella, and to be completely forthright about defendant’s handling of the Legionella outbreak.”
Lewis is asking for a trial by jury.
What the plaintiff says: Lewis contracted Legionnaires’ disease earlier this year, and her daughter Byrd says her mother’s mental and physical health has steeply degraded since then.
Legionnaires’ disease is caused by bacteria found in water and is dangerous when water particles are inhaled into the lungs. Lewis has preexisting health conditions that make getting such a respiratory illness more deadly. Her daughter is in the process of moving Lewis out of Rosemont Court now.
Byrd says her mother filed the lawsuit because “at this point, it’s the only recourse she has.”
“She can no longer walk. She’s suffered greatly from the Legionella and having to move, the stress of it all, and having to acclimate to a new environment,” Byrd says. “I can’t risk her getting it again.”
What the defendant says: Income Property Management did not comment on the lawsuit, but called the situation “unfortunate and complicated.”
Why it matters: Since early January, 14 residents of the low-income senior building have fallen ill after breathing in bacteria from their apartments’ running water. The Legionnaires’ outbreak has baffled Multnomah County health officials and underlined the scarce options that elderly people with little money face. Like Lewis, most of the building’s remaining residents—more than 80 of them—have nowhere else to go.
A 14th resident became sick with the disease on Sept. 27. It’s the first documented case since June. Residents were alerted to the latest case by the Multnomah County Health Department on Oct. 1, which has struggled to identify the origins of the outbreak.
Rosemont Court has outfitted each of the residents’ apartments with filters on every faucet to lessen the risk of residents inhaling bacteria, and has routinely tested the water.
The building is owned by the affordable housing provider Northwest Housing Alternatives, which has strongly urged residents to permanently relocate since the first outbreak in January but has not made moving mandatory. Due to high rent and a lack of affordable housing options, many residents have chosen to stay. —SOPHIE PEEL