Pioneering hardhat who sued for $20M in sexual harassment case dies in fire

Pioneering hardhat who sued for $20M in sexual harassment case dies in fire
BY Erin Durkin and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Monday, October 19th 2009, 9:30 AM

A pioneering female hardhat who was suing her construction company employer for sexual harassment was killed in a fire that ripped through her Queens home Sunday, neighbors and officials said.

Bianca Wisniewski, who filed a $20 million suit this summer that charged she was propositioned at JPMorgan Chase's Park Ave. construction site, was sleeping when flames erupted in her apartment in the Pomonok Houses, her neighbors said.

"I tried to wake them up," said a mournful Demetric Bowman, who tried valiantly to rouse Wisniewski's family.

"I stayed there a long time, banging on that door," said Bowman, 32. "It's the most horrible feeling to know someone's in the apartment and there's a fire and you can't do anything."


Read more at the Daily News website.

As if Death wanted to get even for something...

i love your squirrel.

and no one is suspicious of the nature of said "fire"...come on where are the arson investigators? check that, homicide investigators.

Her boyfriend stated in the article that she told him she had been receiving strange phone calls. I hope they investigate this for arson.

Safety coordinator.

Of course I suspect her employer to do this. It's too convenient for them.

If the judgment has been made against her employer, wouldn't they have to pay her estate anyway?

have to pay it to her estate.

I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder if there is a means to appeal, and if the contractor does appeal, does the judgment stand now that she is dead? Or does that only work if the contractor is dead?