He may have been confusing Mr Smith with Irishman Owen McKenna, 40, who was killed when masonry fell on his car at the intersection of Manchester and Lichfield Sts.
Mr Smith was parked outside a dairy at 269 Manchester St on February 22, 2011, and his car was crushed by rubble from the building's collapse.
Firefighters pulled him from inside the vehicle but, despite medical treatment, he died as a result of his injuries.
Mr Smith had just dropped his son, Dean, off at school when the earthquake struck.
Mr Claxton said it was a month after the earthquake before he became aware of the fact someone had died outside his building, and he knew only the man's name.
"We had no idea that masonry from the building had fallen on to someone's car ... The authorities never told us."
Some seismic work had been done on the building in the past, including the removal of parapets, the adding of a concrete bond beam, the tying of the roof and floor to the walls and the adding of a concrete frame to a wall opening on the ground floor.
However, the building was still considered to be "earthquake prone" by city council policy.
Mr Claxton said that when he bought the building in 2002 he had been reassured by the fact that seismic works had been completed.
"When we bought the building the real estate agent told us the building had been lifted to the council's earthquake level and that the parapets had been removed for safety. It appeared to all intents and purposes to be a safe and sound building."
He had been aware of the building's earthquake prone status, but only through reading about it in newspapers.
"That would have come up in recent years in various sources. I would have read about that in the newspaper. I'd never been approached by the city council [about it]."
The building was green-stickered after the September 4, 2010, earthquake, when a level-one rapid assessment showed no noticeable damage.
A subsequent level-two assessment completed by Opus Engineers confirmed the building's green status, although the engineers found cracks and recommended repairs.
Mr Claxton said he had found the whole process "confusing" and was "hazy" as to whether he had ever spoken to the Opus engineers.
"Regulations and how things should be done were foreign to us ... This was a very confusing time. None of us had heard of green stickers, red stickers."
Contractors Maxim Projects carried out the repairs that had been identified as necessary by Opus.
In their engineering report, Opus also recommended further checking of the building, including bricks on the above parapets. Mr Claxton said he had not known this was recommended, as he had read their report only two weeks ago.
However, he said he was up on scaffolding at that level and did not see any loose bricks.
"The building was in good condition. The brickwork was in good condition ... If there had been serious damage I would have taken it seriously. If there had been light damage I would have tackled it lightly," Mr Claxton said.
"I don't really understand what [Opus engineer Puvi Mohanaraj] was talking about. He, don't forget, was standing on the ground looking up."
The building was not inspected after the Boxing Day aftershock and Mr Claxton said he had not thought it necessary to get an inspection done.
"I didn't initiate an inspection on that building after the first one or after the second one because there was no damage to the building, that's why."
He said he was on first-name basis with the 12 tenants in the building and none of them had been concerned or asked for more detailed inspections.
"We're not absentee landlords; it's a building we knew intimately. There was no damage on the Boxing Day aftershock that caused me to want an inspection carried out."
- APN
