After ‘horrible death,’ Richland jurors award $110,000 to family of victim

A Richland County jury on Thursday awarded $110,000 to the family of an 80-year-old woman who died in a fire set by an arsonist at her apartment in Columbia’s upscale Hollywood-Rose Hill area.

The verdict — against Plantation Court Apartments and the Wolfe & Taylor firm, which managed the apartments — came after the jury deliberated about four hours.

During the trial, True Henderson, the woman who died in the January 2016 fire at the Plantation Court Apartments on South Saluda Avenue, was described by witnesses as an upstanding person, an active member of Shandon Presbyterian Church who loved working with Meals on Wheels and a vibrant part of a close-knit family.

An issue in the case was how much security from intruders — and under what circumstances — landlords must provide for their rental properties. Under S.C. law, landlords don’t have to make their rental properties totally secure. But if they upgrade security, the work must be done properly.

In the Henderson case, a known arsonist was on the loose in Columbia, and the landlords put better locks on the doors at the Saluda Avenue apartments. However, an outside door, used to gain access to the Saluda Avenue apartments including Henderson’s $800-a-month unit, still could be opened easily by an intruder.

In the two months before the fire that killed Henderson, there were six fires in the area, including one in an adjacent Plantation Court building and one in Henderson’s building. Both of those fires were set by an arsonist, evidence showed.

Plantation Court tenants complained to the landlords that the apartment complex’s outside doors needed to be more secure, witnesses said.

Then, the arsonist struck again.

An intruder entered Henderson’s apartment building, through an outside door, and set a fire, evidence showed.

Henderson, whom an autopsy showed inhaled soot before collapsing backwards onto her bed as she tried to stand up and flee, died “a horrible, horrible, horrible death,” Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian told the jurors.

The apartment owner and manager were responsible — at least to some degree — for Henderson’s death, said Harpootlian, who represented her family in their suit against the apartment’s owners and managers,

Harpootlian urged the jurors to send a message to landlords.

The jury should make “an example of these folks, so that other people in this business, other people that are landlords or manage property, (know) that if you represent you are going to secure the property or provide some sort of security ... you’ve got to do it right,” Harpootlian said in a closing argument.

“If you don’t, and if somebody gets hurt or killed, you’re going to be liable for that,” Harpootlian told the jurors.

Damon Wlodarczyk, the attorney for the apartment’s owner and manager, argued that while Henderson — whom he described as “the sweetest lady you probably will ever meet” — had a tragic death, his clients were diligent in providing security and should not be held liable for the actions of an arsonist.

The jury rejected Harpootlian’s request for punitive damages.

State Circuit Court Judge Casey Manning presided.

This story was originally published September 27, 2018 at 6:46 PM.