Murder convictions rare for owners or landlords of deadly sites

Mark Gergen quoted by San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 5, 2016

Survivors of the victims of this weekend’s Ghost Ship fire can also file damage suits against the building’s owner, his chief tenant who leased the spaces, and possibly the promoter of the concert that brought people to the warehouse Friday night, said UC Berkeley Law Professor Mark Gergen. The main obstacle, he said, is that the operators of such “gray economy” enterprises typically have few assets and no insurance.