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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports are not stalling in fulfilling a woman's request for records concerning her husband's death while working at Los Angeles International Airport in 2022, lawyers for both entities maintain in new court papers while citing the volume of the documents sought.
Petitioner Tiffany Abraham alleges the city and airport are snubbing her requests in violation of the California Public Records Act as she tries to find out more about the death of her husband, 36-year-old Cristofer Abraham. The construction foreman was present when a fixed high pressure carbon dioxide fire suppression system released a deluge of carbon dioxide into a utility room in Terminal 8 of LAX on Oct. 31, 2022. He died 11 days later and Abraham filed her Los Angeles Superior Court petition on Jan. 31.
Three other workers were injured and hundreds of passengers were evacuated, according to the petition.
But in court papers filed Monday, lawyers for the city and airport state that a government entity responding to CPRA requests is only required to make a reasonable search for the appropriate documents and is "not required to cease all operations and devote all of its resources to the search."
With related legal actions also in play, including a wrongful death action, it is inevitable that documents will be searched for, found and produced in multiple stages, the city/airport attorneys further state in their court papers.
The city and airport have complied with Abraham's requests to the best of their ability and Abraham's actions "have been improper in pursuing the CPRA requests as a discovery tool" for the related wrongful death claim and in so doing have abused the CPRA to harass the city and airport, according to the respondents' attorneys.
In his court papers addressing Cristofer Abraham's death, Tiffany Abraham's attorney maintains the suppression system did not comply with applicable safety standards and discharged the carbon dioxide gas without any warning, without the requisite pre-activation alarms and minus other mandated safety mechanisms.
"Despite the known dangers, LAWA continues to operate similar systems in other passenger terminals at LAX," Abraham's lawyer states in his court papers.
Abraham, on behalf of herself and her two children, submitted requests for public records about what happened through the CPRA in November 2022, her attorney states in his court papers.
"The public records sought by way of the CPRA Requests are important to Mrs. Abraham to help determine the root cause as to why and how her husband died while working at LAX," Abraham's lawyer states in his court papers. "These records are also critical to the public to expose and investigate how and why LAWA operates mechanical systems that are out of compliance with the regulatory standards and codes."
But Abraham has been upset that the airport has "delayed, obstructed and frustrated" her efforts to access the public records" and instead responded with a list of exemptions to public records category requests "without any real thought as to whether the exemption applies," Abraham's attorney states in his court papers.
As examples, the airport has failed to search or produce the entire surveillance video or documents related to the root causes of the accident, while also refusing to conduct agreed upon "key word" searches for email communications, Abraham's lawyer further states in his court papers.
A hearing on Abraham's motion is scheduled Dec. 19 before Judge Curtis A. Kin.