Father of 3 Victims in Christmas Day Fire Files Suit Against City

After announcing his, Matthew Badger officially filed a lawsuit Wednesday against multiple parties for the wrongful deaths of his three daughters, according to official documents. 

Badger lost his daughters Lily, 9, and Grace & Sarah, 7-year-old twins, in a that tore through the . He was a resident of New York, NY, at the time of the fire. 

Badger stated in his suit, filed on behalf of the individual estates of his three girls, that they had died as a result of a home that had "become a firetrap as a result of months of substandard and dangerous construction leading up to the fire." 

"The girls' estates seek compensation for their conscious pain and suffering, consciousness of impending death, death itself, loss of enjoyment of life's activities and future earnings."

In the suit, , a friend of Badger's wife , as the first defendant. Madonna and Borcina had been at the house at approximately 3 a.m. when Borcina moved smoldering embers from the fireplace to a wastebasket, which according to fire officials, was the cause of the fire. 

Borcina was also allegedly the general contractor on many of the projects the home was undergoing and was both directly working on many of the improvements making final decisions on subcontractors chosen for the work, according to the lawsuit. 

Badger also lists the following as defendants:

• Tiberias Construction
• Michael Foley
• Mike Foley's Fine Carpentry, Inc.
• New Canaan resident Robert Dean
• New Canaan Design Partners LLC
• Stephen Holt
• Shoreline Electrical Contracting LLC 
• The City of Stamford

Borcina, according to the suit, was responsible for "installation and activation of a working and functioning hard-wired fire alarm system," but that no life-saving system was functioning at the time of the fire and, more pointedly, Borcina had allowed Badger's three daughters to live in the home without ever telling them no functioning system was in place. 

Against the city, Badger claimed they were presented with inherently flawed plans and yet still issued permits and allowed work on the home to take place. He said the city conducted inspections, found flaws with the work as it progressed, yet failed to properly followup on "inadequate inspections" or raise issue with the home's occupancy even without a an occupancy certificate, working smoke detectors or an active fire alarm system. 

The suit also claims that neither Borcina or Tiberias were officially authorized to operate as general contractors in the state of Connecticut, but the city failed to stop either from operating in those roles.

The city has already claimed it wold any actions brought against it, but representation was unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

"We're going to pursue this vigorously,' said Richard Emery, main representation for Badger. "We're attempting to hold all parties responsible for this tragedy accountable." 

John Whitcomb is the local representation for Badger and the lawyer who filed the lawsuit. 

Madonna Badger — not for wrongful death, but for destruction of property since she believes the city failed to properly preserve evidence in the case. Madonna lost her parents Lomer and Pauline Johnson in the fire as well.

The State Attorney's office declared last month that in the case.