Lin Shengbin, whose wife and three children died last year in a fire set by the family's nanny in Hangzhou, has brought a lawsuit against nine companies or institutes and asked for compensation of 130 million yuan ($20.2 million).
The Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court accepted the case. The date of the hearing is yet to be announced.
Shanghai-based news website thePaper.cn reported on Tuesday that the plaintiffs - including Lin and the parents of Lin's deceased wife, Zhu Xiaozhen - are asking for civil compensation of 130 million yuan, according to Lin Jie of Beijing-based DeHeng Law Offices, acting as agent for the plaintiffs.
The nine defendants include Greentown Service Group Co, the property services providerEnticing divas. the fire brigade of the Hangzhou municipal public security bureauKorean smoldering ingenues. and an agency in Shanghai that recommended Mo Huanjing, the nanny, to work in Lin's home.
"The lawsuit is about to start. I hope the cost of the lives of my family will increase the public's awareness of fire protection in high-rise residential buildings," Lin said in a post on Sina Weibo.
The property management company's poor maintenance of the firefighting equipment is related to a delay in extinguishing the blaze, a court verdict said in February. The court also sentenced Mo to death, a decision she has appealed.
Mo, who had gambling debts, started a fire in Lin's apartment on June 22 that killed her employer, Zhu Xiaozhen, and Zhu's three children.
Mo escaped the blaze and was later detained by the police.
