Archive for September, 2007
1Pool Company Found Negligent in Wrongful Death Lawsuit
28 September 2007
On September 25th the parents of a 5-year-old boy who drowned last year at Crofton County Club in Anne Arundel County were awarded more than $4 million in damages.
The judge ordered DRD Pool Service Inc., the county club’s management company, to pay Thomas Free and Debra Neagle Webber $2,000,076 each. The $76 serves as a symbol of Connor Freed’s July 6th birthday. DRD was found negligent for failing to adequately train its lifeguards and properly staff the pool.
On June 22, 2006, when Conner was found floating in the Crofton County Club pool, a 16-year-old lifeguard who had been on the job for three weeks was on duty. Currently, in Anne Arundel County only one lifeguard is required for every 50 swimmers.
Conner was at the pool with a family friend, Paul Carroll, and two other children. The jury did not award a judgment against Carroll who had also been name in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Conner’s parents have started a foundation in their son’s honor called Conner Cares. The foundation works to create standardized and more stringent safety requirements at public pools.
Drowning is one of the most, if not the most, preventable cause of childhood deaths. Businesses and facilities that fail to properly supervise children should be held accountable.
2Widow awarded $18.9 million by a Dallas jury last week
28 September 2007
Gordon Rutherford, 34, of Waxahachie, Texas, was killed in January 2003 while employed by Circle 4M Welding, a TXI contractor. According to the lawsuit filed by Rutherford’s wife, TXI directed Gordon and a crew of three other welders to work in a location near an environmental scrubber that contained “extremely …
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3Wrongful Death Case Settled Over Jail Death
27 September 2007
A man died after spending three days in the Mille Lacs County Jail and being denied a visit with a doctor. Before he was arrested he was injured in a car accident. His mother sued the county for wrongful death. The lawsuit was settled for $700,000.For days, he pleaded with Mille Lacs County jail employees to let him see a doctor. But by the time they relented, it was too late, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Brown died of acute bacterial meningitis associated with a skull fracture from the accident.
The mother felt her son’s civi rights had been denied. The county did not admit they had done anything wrong. The family is glad they can move on now that the lawsuit is over.
4$900,000 settlement reached in wrongful death lawsuit
25 September 2007
A Chicago husband whose wife took her own life after she suffered postpartum psychosis recently reached a $900,000 settlement with the doctor and hospital that treated her.
In 2002 Sam Stokes filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Dr. George Melnyk and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, alleging that his wife, Melanie, had not been treated for depression in May 200l-almost three months after the birth of the couple’s daughter, Sommer Skyy, reports the Chicago Tribune.
On June 1, 2001, Melanie Stokes was released from the hospital, and shortly after that she disappeared. On June 11 the new mother jumped to her death from a 12th floor Chicago hotel window (JET, July 2, 2001).
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