A lawsuit was filed on Monday morning, May 19, 2008, on behalf of the Estate of Igor Shteyn, one of the two nursing home residents killed in a tragic fire at the Hampton Plaza Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Niles on Wednesday of this week. The family is being represented by Louis C. Cairo of Goldberg, Weisman & Cairo, Ltd. in Chicago, Illinois. The lawsuit alleges that the nursing home failed to take adequate steps to insure that a safe or adequate emergency response system was in place at the time of the deadly fire. While the investigation has just begun with the municipal authorities, the family wants to retain its own forensic fire experts to analyze the damaged areas and determine precisely what the cause of the fire was. In the meantime, the family’s trial lawyers are investigating what type of protective devices were actually installed, such as fire suppression systems, fire alarms, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, etc., as well as the training of the nursing home personnel.

“There is a very real issue here of whether this nursing home and its staff were prepared to deal with this type of a casualty. Fires occur in numerous situations, but in a nursing home that houses elderly people, it is incredibly important that they be properly equipped, properly trained and properly prepared. We will be seriously investigating whether this nursing home was adequately trained and prepared to deal with these types of emergent matters. Because if there had been an adequate fire suppression system, fire alarms, smoke detectors and personnel in place who were trained to deal with a fire, then we should not be talking about casualties because Igor and Mr. Berdichevsky would not have lost their lives in this fire,” according to Louis C. Cairo, lead counsel for the Shteyn Estate.

Mr. Shteyn is survived by two adult children, both living in the Chicago Metropolitan area. Mr. Shteyn migrated from the country of Kiev and has made his home in Illinois for several years prior to his death.

This suit will be filed so promptly in order to ensure that the Estate had a presence at this site through its legal representatives, forensic experts and other safety experts. “We firmly believe that the Niles Fire Department will do a thorough job investigating the cause of this fire, however, it is incumbent upon our firm to make sure that every possible contributing cause of this fire is determined and we look forward to cooperating with the township authorities and hopefully assisting them in their investigation,” stated Cairo. Moreover, the insurance companies who provide liability insurance to the nursing home have obviously started their investigation to “defend” the claims on behalf of the estates that are inevitable.

For more information relative to this filing, contact Louis C. Cairo at 312-245-2103.

— May 16, 2008