Bunch v. Mathieson Drive Apartments, Inc.

Smith, Judge.

After a fire began near the gas oven in Starlyn Pettis’s apartment, she died from smoke inhalation. Sandra Bunch, Pettis’s mother, brought this action for the wrongful death of Pettis and to recover funeral expenses. She alleged that Mathieson Drive Apartments, Inc. (Mathieson) negligently failed to furnish the apartment with a smoke detector and that this alleged negligence was the proximate cause of Pettis’s death.

The case was tried to a jury. Evidence was presented that on the night of Pettis’s death she smoked marijuana and consumed a large amount of alcohol. Two blood…