Salvation Army ends defense in collapse trial
The Salvation Army ended its defense Friday in the Philadelphia civil trial stemming from the deadly 2013 Center City building collapse that crushed the charity's thrift store.
The Salvation Army ended its defense Friday in the Philadelphia civil trial stemming from the deadly 2013 Center City building collapse that crushed the charity's thrift store.
Friday's trial session marked the end of 14 weeks of testimony and saw the defense cases spin almost to conclusion.
Only one of the six defendants - all accused of playing a role in the June 5, 2013, collapse that killed six and injured 13 - remains to present testimony.
Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina told the jury it would begin deliberating later next week.
The disaster occurred at 10:41 a.m., when the thrift store at 22nd and Market Streets was busy with employees and customers inside.
An unbraced three- to four-story brick wall left standing from the adjacent remains of the vacant four-story Hoagie City building toppled and destroyed the one-story thrift store. One of the 13 injured died 23 days later.
The lawsuits filed by relatives and survivors were consolidated for the trial, which began Sept. 19, 2016. Plaintiffs' lawyers presented 24 witnesses over 28 days.
Although the Salvation Army's building was destroyed and two of its workers were killed, the religious charity was sued for purportedly ignoring warnings of an imminent collapse from the owner of the Hoagie City building and not telling workers and customers about the potential danger.
Also sued are New York real estate speculator Richard Basciano and his STB Investments Corp., which owned the demolition site; Center City architect Plato A. Marinakos Jr., STB's architect hired to monitor demolition; North Philadelphia demolition contractor Griffin Campbell; Sean Benschop, the excavator operator Campbell hired to demolish the four-story Hoagie City building; and Jack Higgins, an architect from northeastern Pennsylvania whom the Salvation Army hired to catalog the thrift store's condition to prove later claims for demolition-related damage.
Only Benschop is not expected to present a defense. Benschop pleaded guilty to six counts of involuntary manslaughter and related charges in the collapse and is serving 71/2 to 15 years in prison. Campbell was convicted at trial in 2015 and sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. Although defendants in the civil trial, both are considered penniless.
The 91-year-old Basciano and his former top aide, Thomas Simmonds, testified earlier. Basciano broke down in tears on the witness stand bemoaning the loss of life.
But he also denied any responsibility for the collapse, casting blame on Simmonds and Marinakos. Simmonds hired Campbell on Marinakos' recommendation.
Marinakos, who was called as a witness by the plaintiffs, also denied responsibility and blamed the disaster on Campbell and Benschop.
Lawyers for the Salvation Army, whose U.S. branch was founded in Philadelphia in 1879, presented 10 witnesses in 10 days before resting.
The Salvation Army's defense was based on two pillars: It had no reason to believe what it called Simmonds' exaggerated claims of imminent collapse, and the disaster was caused solely by Benschop.
Benschop was picking at the remains of the Hoagie City building with a 36,000-pound excavator when the building collapsed and pushed over the unbraced wall.
For the last two days, the jury heard testimony from expert Edward Caulfield, an engineer who investigated the 1981 collapse of two elevated walkways in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Mo., that killed 114 and injured 216.
Caulfield disagreed with plaintiffs' experts, who testified that Hoagie City was structurally compromised and unsafe two weeks before the collapse.
Caulfield maintained that the building was stable and not dangerous until June 3, when Benschop was called in to begin demolishing the building with the excavator.
"He knocked it down," Caulfield told the jury. "He knocked the legs off the table."
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