MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Legal action is being taken against a southeast Memphis apartment complex that, according to an attorney, isn’t providing a safe environment for its tenants.
There are multiple lawsuits filed against the owners of the Waterview Apartments on Quince Road, and one seeks $30 million in damages.
“I’m hoping that they’re learning that they can’t come into our town, take our money out of Memphis and shove it back into Maryland or New York, where they’re from,” Aaron Neglia.
Neglia represents a number of plaintiffs taking legal action against the owners of Waterview.
“This is the fifth case we represent,” he said. “We have four filed in federal court. We’re about to file the fifth one for this apartment complex.”
Neglia said in the past, the complex failed to provide adequate security for tenants with things like “roving” security patrols, security cameras that improperly worked and security gates that were broken.
“You do a crime analysis report, and you find out there’s crime after crime after crime here, whether it’s burglaries, whether it’s robbery, whether it’s murder, whether it’s carjacking,” Neglia said.
His clients include the family of a woman shot and killed during an armed robbery while she was moving into her apartment and a young man shot while waiting for his furniture to arrive.
“That individual actually flat-lined for 10 to 15 minutes,” Neglia said. “Thankfully we have an amazing hospital, Regional One, here, and they revived him after being clinically dead for 10 to 15 minutes.”
In that lawsuit, the victim is seeking $10 million in actual and compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages, Neglia admitted.
“If this was one event, we wouldn’t be seeking punitive damages, but this is crime after crime after crime after crime on this property, and the company just does not care about their tenants,” he said. “It’s sad, and we’re here to stop that.”
Security officers did not allow WREG to stay on the property Tuesday.
We reached out the owners of the property as well as their attorney for a response, but we’re still waiting on that.