Elliot Lake mall lawsuit by victims' families expands

The scope of a multi-million dollar lawsuit stemming from the fatal mall roof collapse in Elliot Lake has been expanded.

A lawyer representing the families of the two victims says the current mayor, former mayor, and former owners of the Algo Centre mall are now also being sued.

When the lawsuit was launched in the months after the 2012 tragedy, it named the City of Elliot Lake, Ontario Ministry of Labour, mall owner Bob Nazarian, and the final engineering firm to inspect the mall.

But based on information that came out during the public inquiry, the firm that represents the Aylwin and Perizzolo families sought — and has now received — permission to add more defendents.

They include former mall owners Retirement Living and Algoma Central Properties, as well as Elliot Lake mayor Rick Hamilton and former mayor George Farkouh.

“They, we will contend, have separate and personal liability that is distinct from what the city of Elliot Lake would have, primarily because we are going to contend that they had information that they obtained as directors of Retirement Living that they failed to pass on to the city,” lawyer Roger Oatley said.

Retirement Living is a non-profit agency the city set up in the 1990s to promote Elliot Lake as a retirement destination. It owned the mall from 1999 to 2005.

None of the allegations in the suit have been proven in court.

Oatley said the families will seek millions of dollars in damages.

Doloris Perizzolo and Lucie Aylwin were killed when the mall's roof partially collapsed in June of 2012.

CBC News attempted to contact all four new defendents in the lawsuit, but they were either unavailable or declined to comment.