Contractor and sub-contractor hurl blame at each other.
Two contractors involved in a downtown Philadelphia building collapse hurled blame at each other Tuesday, through lawyers who broke their clients’ weeklong silence about the disaster that killed six.
Contractor Griffin Campbell’s lawyer called him “despondent” but “absolutely not responsible” for the deaths. The lawyer for demolition subcontractor Sean Benschop said he was “a scapegoat” for the city’s pain.
And each said it wasn’t his client’s idea to use heavy equipment to knock down a four-story brick wall, which collapsed onto an adjacent thrift store last week, burying 19 people inside.
“They had to blame somebody, so they picked the lowest person on the totem pole,” said Benschop’s lawyer, Daine Grey. “My client followed the directions he was given, 100 percent.”
Hours earlier, lawyer Kenneth Edelin told reporters that Campbell was onsite with the building owner when the collapse occurred, but had only authorized the excavator to be used to remove debris, not to knock down the wall, which investigators said it was used for.
If that was done, Campbell never saw it, Edelin said.
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