Envy Apartment

A federal appeals court has significantly reduced a punitive damages award returned in a lawsuit filed against an apartment complex by a woman who suffered severe brain damage from carbon monoxide poisoning . The case involved injuries suffered by Amber Lompe at her home in the Sunridge Apartments in February 2011, when a gas leak from a furnace at the apartment complex caused her to suffer a severe brain injury from exposure to carbon monoxide . As a result of the leak, carbon monoxide levels in Lompe’s apartment reached 500 parts per million, which is more than ten times higher than what is considered a safe exposure. Ten days after the incident, the complex provided her with a carbon monoxide detector and destroyed the furnace, which she argued at trial was an effort to destroy evidence in the case. At trial before a federal jury in Wyoming, Lompe was awarded $2.65 million in compensatory damages, as well as an additional $25.5 million in punitive damages against Sunridge...

A jury awarded $28.2 million to a woman who was poisoned by carbon monoxide at the Sunridge Apartments in Casper in what could be one of the largest civil judgments in state history. “What I have been told is it’s the largest personal injury verdict in the state of Wyoming,” said Tyson Logan, an attorney from the Jackson law firm that represented the woman, the Spence Law Firm . Amber Lompe, now 23, was poisoned by her furnace in 2011. She has a permanent brain injury that affects her memory, concentration, processing speed, attention and ability to multi-task, Lompe said Friday afternoon. “When I moved in there, I assumed everything was checked out and it was safe for me to live in,” she said. Before the poisoning, Sunridge’s owner and manager ignored warnings that the furnaces were dangerous and needed to be fixed or replaced. After the poisoning, the 30-year-old furnace in Lompe’s apartment was removed. Logan said the removal of the unit was part of a cover-up. On Dec. 20, a j...