Lewis Wiener: Dying dad sues travel firm VRBO after daughters die in FIRE-TRAP vacation home

After his two daughters died during an $8000-per-week trip to Hampton, a father who was close to death filed a lawsuit against a travel agency. When a fire broke out on August 3, 2022, killing his daughters Lindsay Elisa Weiner, 19, and Jillian Rose Weiner, 21, Lewis Wiener, a former chair of the US Courts of Federal Claims, accused VRBO, Homeaway.com, and property owners Pamela and Peter Miller of failing to maintain his family's safety, according to the Daily Mail. After realizing that his pancreatic illness was terminal, Wiener, 60, decided to take one last family holiday, but tragedy struck. Apart from Wiener, his wife and son were able to escape through a window on the second floor, but Jilian and Lindsay were unable to leave the house. Family members who are grieving have requested $75,000 for emotional suffering as well as an undisclosed sum for economic and medical losses. "Rather than fond memories of a week’s vacation on Long Island’s east end, the Wiener family is left with a nightmare from which they cannot wake," the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court states. “The defendants’ greed, corner cutting and willful failure to pay any attention to the safety of the occupants of the property led to the deaths of Jillian Rose Wiener and her sister Lindsay Eliza Wiener,” it added. According to a report from the fire chief, the house lacked any operational smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. The freshly constructed outdoor kitchen wasn't checked by "a competent electrician or other professional to determine that it fulfilled local, state, and national safety regulations," the attorneys claimed, adding that the home lacked the required rental licenses. For their three Spring Lane residences, the Millers received 58 different construction code violation citations. However, Southampton Town was also criticized by Wiener's legal team for allegedly encouraging an unlawful rental housing culture there. In the lawsuit, the city was blamed for "creating, through willful indifference, a known hazard of numerous rental properties in the city of Southampton, including the contested home, which the respondent knew or should have known were being rented out without passing the required safety inspections," according to attorney Andres Alonso. Alonso claims that Suffolk County is looking into the fire as a possible federal offense. The owner of HomeAway.com VRBO refuses to comment on pending legal proceedings. A person who violates the city's rental permit laws may receive a 15-day jail sentence or a fine ranging from $150 to $1,500. The house costs $1.8 million to buy, has a rent of about $26,000 per month, and is close to Long Beach. The most recent sale of the home happened in 2016.