Fire at adjacent property leads to lawsuit by tenant

A man is suing his landlord and adjacent property owner after a fire spread to the room he was renting, causing injuries.

Gerardo Del Villar filed a lawsuit Dec. 6 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Carlito Allegros and Mariola Sztuka, also known as Mariola Zaborowska, citing premises liability and breach of contract.

According to the complaint, Allegros owned a property at 5814 W. Roscoe St. in Chicago and Sztuka owned a property at 5818 W. Roscoe St. Del Villar, the suit states, rented a bedroom from Sztuka and paid rent monthly.

Del Villar claims that on May 7, a premises on Allegros' property caught on fire and spread to Sztuka's property, causing serious injuries to Del Villar when he was unable to escape.

He claims the defendants negligently and carelessly failed to equip the premises with smoke detectors and negligently allowed a fire to start on the property without taking proper care and caution to prevent it to spread to surrounding areas.

Del Villar is seeking damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit and is being represented in the case by attorneys from Curcio Law Offices.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2013L013826.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Cook County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note that a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it represents only one side of the story.