Lawsuits line up after collapsing Savannah bar deck injured 14

After a Savannah bar's outside, second-story deck collapsed on St. Patrick's Day, the bar is facing multiple lawsuits, reports say.

There were 14 people injured in the Saturday afternoon incident at Rogue Water Tap House, a Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard bar.

Seven of those injured people have filed suit in Chatham County State Court for unspecified damages in six separate complaints, Savannah Morning News reported. Bloc & Co. LLC, 38 MLK LLC and Christopher Clarke were named as defendants and identified as “owners, managers and/or operators” of the business.

An attorney who represents one of the victims claimed the collapse could have been prevented.

"If someone had exercised the slightest bit of diligence in examining the deck before allowing their customers to go on it, they would have realized that the deck was a ticking time bomb--which is what our experts have told us,” Savannah attorney Jeremy McKenzie with Karsman, McKenzie, and Hart told WSAV.

Overcrowding was not believed to have been a problem, according to a city news release at the time. The building's occupancy is 165 people and was last checked on in a Savannah Fire Rescue fire marshal inspection on Feb. 28. In the inspection, the fire marshal addresses fire safety and occupancy.

"Upon issuance of the (Certificate of Occupancy), the city does not have any ongoing responsibility to inspect the building," according to the city news release. "The responsibility to inspect and maintain the building falls on the property owner."

This story was originally published March 29, 2018 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Lawsuits line up after collapsing Savannah bar deck injured 14."