CVS Health Corp. is demanding compensation from welders and a dry cleaner for a fire that caused more than $5 million in damages three years ago at its Larchmont store.
The Woonsocket, Rhode Island pharmacy chain accused Excelsior of Larchmont Inc., Joe’s Onsite Welding Inc. and Rivertown General Contracting Inc. of negligence, in a complaint filed Dec. 13 in Westchester Supreme Court.
The fire broke out on Dec. 19, 2018 in the Excelsior Cleaners store in Ferndale Center, West Boston Post Road, according to court records, and caused at least $7 million in damages.
Excelsior had hired Joe’s, of Briarcliff Manor to weld rebar in the store, according to the complaint, and Rivertown, of Irvington, allegedly loaned one of its employees to help with the job.
As the rebar was being cut, sparks ignited clothing, plastic bags and dry-cleaning chemicals. Fire spread quickly to the CVS next door and throughout the 84,000-square-foot shopping center.
CVS claims that the defendants did not get a work permit for the job; did not remove flammable materials from the work site; did not maintain electrical and mechanical systems that would have prevented or limited fire; failed to supervise workers to prevent a fire; and failed to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances.
Joe’s attorney, Salvatore J. DeSantis, declined to comment on the allegations as a matter of policy on pending lawsuits. Excelsior and Rivertown did not respond to an email asking for their sides of the story.
Two other lawsuits have been filed in the past 13 months in Westchester Supreme Court, bringing the alleged damages to nearly $7 million.
Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. demanded $331,296 from Excelsior and Joe’s in November 2020. Excelsior and Joe’s broadly denied the allegations in their answers to the complaint, and they filed cross-claims blaming one another for the fire. The case is pending.
Tri-State Insurance Co. of Minnesota sued Joe’s and Rivertown for negligence this past October, to recover more than $1.6 million it paid to Excelsior on in insurance claim for the dry cleaner’s losses.
Joe’s denied the allegations and Rivertown has not yet filed an answer to the complaint. The case is pending.
CVS is represented by New Jersey attorney Thomas D. Jacobson, Michigan attorneys Ashley M. Shults and Evan J. Malinowski, and Philadelphia attorney Desiree Wilfong.
