Court papers filed Monday in a lawsuit over the July fire at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River that killed 10 people allege that failures by a fire inspection company were a “direct cause” of the fatalities.

“All liability should fall on” Fire Systems Inc., a North Dartmouth-based inspection company, according to a counter claim filed by the facility’s owner in a civil suit Monday in Bristol Superior Court.

Lawyers for Dennis Etzkorn filed the 28-page counterclaim to a lawsuit brought by the inspection company, which alleges that Gabriel House was notified about recalled sprinklers and told to replace them 10 months before the July 13 fire.

It was the most fatal fire in Massachusetts in decades; 59 surviving residents were displaced.

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