A Manhattan judge says the mother of actor Macaulay Culkin must go to trial to defend herself against lawsuits filed after a fire that started in her apartment damaged property and killed four people.
State Supreme Court Justice Paula Omansky, in a ruling made public Thursday that applies to eight lawsuits, refused to dismiss the cases against Culkin's mother, Patricia Bentrup, and the 51-story building's managers and owners.
The lawsuits seek hundreds of millions of dollars for wrongful death, personal injuries and property damage caused by a December 1998 fire in one of the three 19th-floor apartments where Bentrup and six of her seven children lived.
Her son, Macaulay, star of the "Home Alone" movies, was not there.
Fire officials said the fire was ignited by a short circuit in a wire in a wall-mounted heater. They also said that the door to the apartment in which the fire started had been propped open.