Builders of Berkeley apartment sued for similar building failings

Local court reports have shown that the builder of the Berkeley apartments had paid off more than $6m (€5.2m) in law suits because of bad balcony building practices.

The building and safety department investigators are due to publish their findings soon.

The pictures of rotting wood left exposed by the collapse in Berkeley are said to be “incredibly similar” to other images used in a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Segue Construction, the construction company that built the complex where six students died.

The firm, which built Library Gardens near downtown Berkeley, has settled two lawsuits in recent years and is under increasing pressure to explain how the balcony at the relatively newly built complex snapped and flipped.

Images from the many candlelight vigils, books of condolences and commemorations held in Ireland and the US yesterday for the six Irish students who lost their lives in Berkeley, California, this week.

The lawsuits cost the company a total of $6.5m, both linked to water penetrating through to wood framing of the buildings, including balconies, according to

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City of Berkeley mayor Tom Bates said there was “high probability” this is what led to the balcony collapsing on Tuesday morning.

Attorney Rachel Miller, senior partner of the Miller law firm, said that pictures of the broken balcony in Berkeley were “incredibly similar” to images she had seen from a law suit against Segue Construction. In February 2013, Ms Miller’s firm secured a $3.5m settlement from Segue on behalf of the residents of Park Broadway amid complaints of dry rot under balconies and other allegations.

“It was just like Park Broadway. They were incredibly similar. It was like the same picture with the same brown dry rot and black mould,” Ms Miller told the Irish Examiner.

In a statement issued yesterday, the company said there was no connection between the two projects.

It added: “Segue Construction’s hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the young people who died or were injured in this tragic accident.

“We have offered our assistance and full co-operation to investigating authorities.”

Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcan Miller, Eimear Walsh, all 21 and from Ireland, and Ashley Donohue, from California but with a dual US-Irish citizenship, died following the collapse.

The seven survivors are Hannah Waters, Clodagh Cogley, Niall Murray, Sean Fahey, Jack Halpin, Conor Flynn and Aoife Beary, all aged between 20 and 22. They had gathered to celebrate Ms Beary’s birthday.