While the criminal investigation into the fatal Christmas day Stamford house fire continues, one party is preparing for a lawsuit. Matthew Badger, whose young daughters died in his ex-wife's Connecticut home, "filed papers in Stamford Probate Court recently, seeking to administer his daughters’ estates for a potential 'wrongful-death claim,'" according to the NY Post. But Badger won't be suing his ex Madonna Badger—instead, he is targeting her boyfriend, contractor Michael Borcina.
Madonna Badger had been in the middle of extensive renovations of her three-story Victorian on Stamford's Shippan Avenue when a fire broke out on Christmas Day. While Badger survived along with her boyfriend Michael Borcina, the contractor overseeing the work, her young daughters—7-year-old twins and their 9-year-old sister—and her parents were killed in the massive blaze. Investigators say that Borcina emptied still-smoldering embers from a fire into a bag and placed the bag in the mudroom or in a trash enclosure; later, the embers triggered fire. (The embers may have been removed so the girls would not worry about Santa Claus being injured when coming down the chimney.) By the time firefighters were called to the house, they could only rescue Badger and Borcina. Later, Stamford's Buildings Department ordered the home to be razed, because it was structurally unsound.
Matthew Badger's lawyer Richard Emery told the Post that his client wasn't suing his ex-wife (who reportedly tried to kill herself recently), but was instead looking at Borcina's actions: “That fact is that Borcina was the contractor on the job. He was aware of the dangers, or should have been aware of dangers, that a civilian would have been unaware of. The fact that kids were living in this house was unbelievable ... I don’t hold Madonna Badger responsible for that at all because I can’t imagine she would have understood the immediacy of the dangers." Emery also emphasized that it's unclear whether there will be a lawsuit at all.
Borcina has hired a criminal lawyer to represent him. His contractor registration for Connecticut expired 12 years ago and his home improvement license in NY expired two years ago. Borcina, Madonna Badger and Matthew Badger were all seen together at the January 5 funeral for the little girls.
