LIN SHENGBIN, whose wife and three children died last year in a fire set by the family’s nanny in Hangzhou, has brought a lawsuit against nine companies or institutes and asked for compensation of 130 million yuan (US$20.2 million). The Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court has accepted the case. Shanghai-based news website thePaper.cn reported Tuesday that the plaintiffs, including Lin and the parents of his deceased wife, are asking for civil compensation of 130 million yuan, according to Lin Jie of Beijing-based DeHeng Law Offices, acting as agent for the plaintiffs. The nine defendants include Greentown Service Group Co., the property services provider; the fire brigade of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau; and an agency in Shanghai that recommended Mo Huanjing, the nanny, to work in Lin’s home. “The lawsuit is about to start. I hope the cost of the lives of my family will increase the public’s awareness of fire protection in high-rise residential buildings,” Lin said in a post on Sina Weibo. The property management company’s poor maintenance of the firefighting equipment is related to a delay in extinguishing the blaze, a court verdict said in February. The court also sentenced Mo to death, a decision she has appealed. Mo, who had gambling debts, started a fire in Lin’s apartment June 22 that killed her employer, Zhu Xiaozhen, and Zhu’s three children. Mo escaped the blaze and was later detained by the police. (China Daily) |