The mother of an Alhambra woman who died in 2015 from carbon monoxide poisoning in the apartment where both women lived is suing their landlord, alleging the death occurred because of a faulty water heater.
Rachel Rivera’s daughter, Monique, was a 25-year-old Cal State Los Angeles psychology student. She was found unconscious by her mother at their Norwich Avenue unit about 11 a.m. April 6, 2015.
Paramedics were unable to revive Rivera and she was pronounced dead at the scene along with a pet poodle, police said.
Rivera’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges wrongful death, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of the implied warranty of inhabitability and fraudulent concealment by landlord Daniel Nevarez, who could not be immediately reached.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
According to the lawsuit, Nevarez went to the Riveras’ unit the day before the woman’s death to repair the water heater after Rachel Rivera complained that it was not producing hot water and was leaking. However, he “haphazardly attempted to fix the water heater and negligently caused its vent cap to become displaced from the carbon monoxide vent, spilling lethal amounts of carbon monoxide into the unit,” according to the complaint.
Nevarez never obtained a permit for the water heater and did not hire a licensed contractor to install it, the suit states.
–City News Service