Mayor named in wrongful death suit
COEUR d'ALENE — Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer and Coeur d'Alene Resort general manager Bill Reagan are targets of a wrongful death lawsuit.
Recently filed court documents state Widmyer and Reagan, co-owners of the Royal Arms Apartments, were negligent and proximately caused the November 2014 death of 73-year-old tenant Margie Saunders. Saunders died of hypothermia due to the apartment complex's heating deficiencies, according to her son and the case's lone plaintiff, Stephen Saunders.
R. Marie Widmyer, Ben Widmyer, Danelle Reagan, BW Real Estate LLC, C.E Oakland Plumbing and Heating and subjects listed as John Does 1-5 and Corporate Does 6-10 are also among the lawsuit's defendants.
Stephen Saunders claims the defendants received numerous complaints from tenants about a lack of heat and hot water over a seven-month period leading up to his mother's death.
"(The defendants) breached their duty to Margie Saunders when, among other things, they failed to provide heat, hot water, other habitable necessities and/or proper maintenance or repair, to Margie Saunders' apartment," the court documents read.
Steve Widmyer, who owns many properties in the region, said the matter is being handled by his insurance company and its attorneys.
"It's in their hands. That's all I can really say," Widmyer said Tuesday.
Bill Reagan was not immediately available for comment.
The plaintiff claims Margie Saunders died alone in her apartment on her 73rd birthday due to below-freezing temperatures, but a coroner's verdict obtained by The Press gives additional details.
The Kootenai County coroner's report states Margie Saunders, a widow who lived in the Section 8 apartments since 2001, died between Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, 2014 due to both hypothermia and ethanol intoxication.
Ethanol is the principle type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.
"Incapacitation on floor of cold residence due to ethanol intoxication," the coroner's report said of the injury that led to her death. The report also notes Saunders' other significant health conditions including cirrhosis of the liver and cardiomyopathy.
According to court documents and invoices, the defendants contacted Oakland Plumbing and Heating in March 2014 regarding a noise with the complex's boiler system. Oakland remedied the noise problem, but suggested in writing that an old pump needed to be replaced in the near future.
In June 2014, the heat and hot water in the complex stopped working properly, according to the plaintiff, and Oakland soon responded by replacing a re-circulation pump on a boiler it wrote as "No longer repairable" on a $696 receipt. According to the lawsuit, unnamed defendants performed services in an attempt to restore the heat and hot water.
In September 2014, the defendants — the Widmyers, Reagans and BW Real Estate — contacted Oakland about the continued heat issues and Oakland replaced another recirculation pump. In October, Oakland was called to the complex again after receiving heat and hot water complaints. Oakland determined the pumps for the boiler system needed to be replaced and advised the defendants to get heaters.
The plaintiff states the defendants didn't heed Oakland's suggestion for heaters and, three days before Margie Saunders' death, another tenant notified the defendants that her child woke up with frozen fingers and the heat was off.
"Defendants Steven Widmyer, R. Marie Widmyer, William Reagan, Danelle Reagan, BW Real Estate LLC, Ben Widmyer, Oakland Plumbing and Heating and/or John Does and Jane Does 1-5 and Corporate Does 6-10 owed a duty to Margie Saunders to provide heat and hot water to her apartment, advise, diagnose, problems and/or repair the heating system to provide heat and hot water to her apartment," the court documents read.
Stephen Saunders is suing for a variety of damages, including mental, economic and emotional. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial.