Victory: Judge Orders Water’s Edge To Fund Relocation of Residents and Supports the City’s Longstanding Call for Life Safety Improvements

Special To The Journal

The City of Revere has claimed a victory in its court case against the owners of the Water’s Edge Apartments, which are located at 370 Ocean Ave.

In good news for those residents still without permanent housing following a June 21 fire at the apartment complex, the Eastern Housing Court of Boston upheld the complaint delivered by the City on behalf of five residents. The Court ordered Carabetta Company, owners of the Water’s Edge Apartments, to provide temporary housing for residents and ordered the company to hire an outside Project Manager and/or Registered Design Professional to complete the long-standing life-safety and remediation efforts necessary at the property.

“This order is a step in the right direction and a win for our residents,” said Mayor Arrigo. “The City of Revere will continue to take every legal action available to hold the Carabetta company accountable for their continued disregard for their properties and tenants.”

Capizzi Lauds D’Ambrosio for His Role on Legal Team

City Solicitor Paul Capizzi and Attorney Gerry D’Ambrosio led the legal battle in court. The Court noted that the City, through the testimony of Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cheever, Building Commissioner Louis Cavagnaro, presented credible and substantial conditions at the apartments that may violate the State Fire Code, Building Code, and Sanitary Code.

“I think it was a big victory for the City,” said Capizzi. “I think our legal strategy worked 100 percent. I just want to be clear that we’re not asking them [Water’s Edge Apartments] to do anything as a favor for the city. This is the law. This is stuff that they should have been doing anyway to make their building habitable. It’s unfortunate that we had to work this hard to put their feet to the fire to get them to comply. The Housing Court seems to be on board with us in understanding what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Capizzi lauded D’Ambrosio’s contributions and work on the Revere legal team in consultation with Mayor Arrigo and Revere department heads.

“Attorney D’Ambrosio provided great legal service to get us to where we are right now,” said Capizzi. “I don’t think there was any other way we could get to this point. I want to give credit to D’Ambrosio’s legal team for helping move this along quickly in the Housing Court, which is not always an easy thing to do.”

D’Ambrosio deflected the praise from his legal teammate and credited Mayor Arrigo and the City Council for ensuring that the tenants were being defended vigorously in Court.

“The reality is that Water’s Edge was operating a high-rise building with a deficient fire suppression system,” said D’Ambrosio. “Those deficiencies put them in violation of the code, and Mayor Arrigo is holding them accountable for that.”

Housing Court Decision

A number of residents came forward and filed for injunctive relief, filed for injunctive relief as many of them have remained unhoused, living in cars and other unacceptable conditions. In granting the relief, the Court noted:

“This Court is unpersuaded that Water’s Edge comes to this Court with fully clean hands. Many of the violations cited in the Order to Correct issued by the City suggest a pattern and practice of patchwork repairs (for example, the corroded fire pump platform and the semi-operational fire doors) and outright neglect (for example, the missing fire extinguishers, the open windows in the stairwells affecting the operation of fire suppression systems, and the overdue failure to replace the fire alarm system.) In this Court’s view, the fire may not have been “caused” by Water’s Edge, but there is significant evidence suggesting that the extent of the damages could have been mitigated if Water’s Edge had maintained its fire systems in accordance with the applicable code requirements.”

For those reasons and others, the Court granted the residents an injunction and ordered Water’s Edge to provide within five days of the notice either hotel accommodations with kitchen facilities in a Revere-area hotel or an alternative temporary apartment in a habitable unit in another building at the Water’s Edge apartment complex. Further, the Court ordered that by September 1, 2022, Water’s Edge Partnership must either prepay for hotel accommodations through the month of September for each plaintiff or have moved each tenant into alternative housing. This matter will have a status hearing on October 20, 2022.