Astoria pot store knocks ex-landlord for lack of safety features

ASTORIA, Ore. — Sweet Relief, which is being sued by the owner of a building it subleased that was gutted after a butane hash oil explosion and fire in 2016, is blaming its former landlord for not installing proper safety equipment.

Hudson Specialty Insurance Co., the insurer for Richard Delphia’s building at the corner of Portway and Industry streets in Astoria, sued Jason Oei and Chris West — the main tenants of the building through marijuana concentrates company Higher Level Concentrates — last year for negligence. Oei and West were allegedly making butane hash oil in an open-ended system while smoking when the blast occurred.

Sweet Relief, a marijuana store, subleased an upstairs suite of the building for a second Astoria location. The company was named a co-defendant, along with investor John Harper, for its knowledge of the operation. Oei and West, who both filed for bankruptcy protection, were removed from the Delphia lawsuit.

Grant Stockton, a lawyer for Sweet Relief, knocked Delphia for failing to equip the building with automatic sprinklers, proper venting, adequate fire control and for not preventing Higher Level’s illegal activity.

Any losses sustained by Delphia and his insurer are the result of acts or omissions beyond Sweet Relief’s control, Stockton wrote.

Delphia’s lawsuit comes after another claim brought by Jacob Magley, a worker for Higher Level who was badly burned in the fire, was settled for an undisclosed amount.