Move Survivors Awarded Damages

Eleven years after police dropped a bomb on the MOVE rowhouse, starting a fire that killed 11 people and destroyed a neighborhood, a jury ordered the city and two former officials Monday to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two dead members of the radical group.

After nine days of deliberations, the jury found the city used excessive force and violated MOVE’s constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Ramona Africa, the only adult to survive the blaze, was awarded $500,000 from the city: $400,000 for pain and suffering and $100,000 for disfigurement from burns suffered in the fire. Relatives of MOVE founder John Africa and his nephew Frank Africa, who both died, received a total of $1 million from the city for pain and suffering.

“Long live John Africa,” Ramona Africa said after the verdict.

The May 13, 1985, confrontation killed five adults and six children in the MOVE house and burned 61 homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Despite a special commission finding that top city officials were “grossly negligent” and two grand jury investigations, no one from city government ever was charged.

Ramona Africa, 41, escaped with a 13-year-old boy then known as Birdie Africa by crawling through a basement window. She served seven years in prison on a riot charge. She and relatives of the dead sued the city, former Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor and former Fire Commissioner William Richmond.

The jury ordered Richmond and Sambor to pay Ramona Africa damages of $1 per week each for 11 years, specifying that the awards be paid weekly. Relatives of Frank and John Africa were awarded similar token amounts by the jury.

“They will not be able to put this case behind them,” said Fincourt Shelton, the lawyer for Frank Africa’s estate, noting that Sambor and Richmond will have to think about people they don’t like, every week for the next eleven years. “The dollar amount doesn’t matter.”

Birdie Africa, who now goes by the name Michael Ward, had settled with the city for $1.7 million.