Wrongful Death

Published on: April 18, 2014

Fatal Electrocution of 7-year-old boy in North Miami likely caused by Code Violation

7-year-old Calder Sloan was in his swimming pool with Gary, the son of his nanny, who was watching Calder and his younger brother Caleb in their home in North Miami Beach when the unthinkable happened. Gary felt a shock and jumped out of the water yelling for Calder to do the same. Calder did not hear him as he was swimming under water at the time. A split second later, Calder was thrown out of the water. Neighbors rushed to the backyard, performed CPR while getting zapped themselves.

Calder was rushed to Jackson North Medical Center, but the young boy could not survive the jolt of electricity that went through his body. The Miami Herald reported power source could have been as much as 120 volts.

A photograph of the pool light showed rust and corrosion which further evidences an electrical circuit issue with the repairs. Calder’s father, Chris Sloan, told media that about nine months ago, he had an electrician fix the pool light which was not working properly.

Published on: April 16, 2014

Tivoli Park Management is to blame for drowning of twin toddlers say residents

By Leesfield & Partners

Last week, two year-old twin sisters Harmony and Harmani West tragically drowned in the swimming pool of their apartment complex, Tivoli Park, in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Since the incident, while the parents are attempted to cope with their brutal and unfair loss, residents and neighbors have clearly and unequivocally placed the blame on the management company for the family’s loss.

“The doors don’t lock.” Residents said in no uncertain terms that the door and gate to the pool is always open. Lou Pena, a fellow resident at Tivoli Park told police and news reporters that the pool door “never locks. Anyone can go in whenever they want I don’t blame a little child for wandering in it was going to happen sooner or later.”

As discussed last week in our first entry on this tragedy, Florida Law imposes that residential swimming pools be fenced in. At the time of passage of the new law, drowning was the leading cause of death of young children in the state of Florida. The Legislature received testimony of experts throughout the legislative process confirming that constant adult supervision is the key to accomplishing the objective of reducing the number of submersion incidents, and that when lapses in supervision occur a pool safety feature designed to deny, delay, or detect unsupervised entry to the swimming pool will reduce drowning incidents.

Published on: November 15, 2013

Ventilator-dependent twin brothers die during power outage

By Leesfield & Partners

In Northern California’s Calaveras County last night, twin brothers Ryan Hall and Joshua Hall died during a local power outage. The two 22-year-old brothers were ventilator dependents and the early investigation revealed that their respective ventilators’ back-up system systems failed when the house lost power.

Ryan and Joshua Hall suffered from muscular dystrophy and relied on their ventilator to breathe for them. Sheriff Gary Kuntz told reporters that the investigation is focused on the reasons why the backup systems failed.

This tragic incident is eerily similar to a case Leesfield & Partners recently handled and successfully resolved after almost three years of litigation, and a $2.5 million wrongful death settlement was reached for the parents and sole caretakers of the 31 year-old man who died.

Published on: August 14, 2013

Fatal Car2Go Accident downtown Miami

By Leesfield & Partners

At dawn this morning in Miami, a Chevy pick-up truck traveling eastbound on Northeast 15th Street, in downtown Miami, was t-boned by a white Daimler SMART car traveling southbound on Biscayne Boulevard. One of the investigators told the media that it is believed the driver of the SMART car failed to stop at a stop sign or a red light, which was the cause for the two vehicle to collide at such a high rate of speed.

The incident occurred at approximately 4:45am on Wednesday August 14, 2013. The passenger of the SMART car, a young woman in her twenties was fatally injured and died at the scene. The driver of the SMART car was critically injured and rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. The condition of the driver of the pick-up truck remain unknown but reporters have shared that there are serious concerns he may have sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury and may be paralyzed. (Photo on the left courtesy of Miami Herald)

The SMART car involved in this incident, whose driver was supposedly at fault, was a CAR2GO vehicle. According to the company’s website, CAR2GO is a mobility program launched in Austin, Texas back in November 2009. The company provides a fleet of free-floating vehicles distributed all over the city. Individuals who become members of CAR2GO have the ability to use any vehicle from the CAR2GO fleet at any time.

Published on: March 15, 2013

What are the responsibilities of a resort towards guests who use the resort’s swimming pool?

By Leesfield & Partners

Florida law is clear. The owner of a resort owes its guests the duty to exercise ordinary care in providing a safe and proper place to bathe or swim.

In the exercise of ordinary and reasonable care, the owner of a resort which offers swimming pools as attractions or amusements are required to furnish a reasonably sufficient number of attendants or lifeguards for the protection of bathers, and the total absence of lifeguards at a public swimming pool may be negligence.

Last Sunday, a young teenager drowned in the pool of Disney’s Pop Century Resort near Orlando, FL. On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office advised that the 13-year-old, Anthony Johnson, had passed away. The Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg first reported the event yesterday: 13-year-old boy drowns at Disney’s Pop Century Resort in Central Florida

Details of the actual reason for the death of Anthony have not been made public by the authorities. We know that at approximately 9:30pm, Anthony was found at the bottom of the 4-feet deep swimming pool and pulled by his cousin. Immediate attempts to resuscitate were made by the child’s father, as well as a firefighter who was vacationing at the resort and who was present when Anthony’s body was pulled out of the water.

Rescue arrived moments later. According to other guests’ testimonials, resuscitation efforts lasted for almost an hour before Anthony was put on a stretcher and transported emergently to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than 48 hours later.

Disney released a statement indicating that the lifeguards at the resort are on duty until 8pm every night. The pool where Anthony drowned, however, remains open past 8pm and swimmers are swimming at their own risk. Disney further advised that signs are posted throughout the area to alert swimmers. It is also important to note that Disney advertises its pools to be for “Preschoolers, Kids, Tweens, Teens, Adults, All Ages.”

An investigation into this tragedy will aim to answer several questions. If it is ascertained that the incident occurred at a time where lifeguards were not on duty, one must look into the reason for the pool to have remained open past 8pm. One can understand that any resort would want to keep its pools open for guests to use at their own discretion, but then why not man each pool with human security? In other words, why not extend the duties of lifeguards by several hours, like it is customarily done in other resorts?

Secondly, despite the absence of any lifeguards at the time Anthony was in the pool, was the resort equipped with mandatory life-saving and automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in case a drowning were to occur? Not only that, was a staff person trained in the use of AEDs on duty at the time this incident took place?

Unfortunately, this tragedy is not the first of its kind. Several years ago, parents have endured the loss of their 6-year-old boy who drowned in one of the Disney’s swimming pools. While the circumstances of that tragedy were a bit different, Disney did agree to an out-of-court settlement with the family who had lost their loved one. The lawsuit, in part, alleged that the single lifeguard posted at the pool failed to adequately supervise the guests who were using the pool. The family also alleged that Disney should have had more than one lifeguard on duty at the time because of the large crowd of people using the pool.
Continue reading

Published on: February 21, 2013

Jack3d at center of lawsuit filed by family for son’s wrongful death

By Leesfield & Partners

Last year, we reported on the military investigation into the death of two soldiers during on-base exercises and the link with the two men’s ingestion and consumption of a dietary supplement called ‘Jack3d’ (pronounced Jacked)

This week, the parents of 22-year-old Michael Sparling, who died on the morning of June 1, 2011, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Dallas-based manufacturer of Jack3d, USPlabs, and GNC, the store where Michael purchased the product.

In its lawsuit, the family alleges that USPlabs was negligent under several theories of liability including defective design of the product, failure to warn its users, breach of warranty, and unlawful business acts and practices in violation of California law.

Published on: January 8, 2013

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning kills elderly woman in Miami

By Leesfield & Partners

After being alerted by the landlord that something was wrong, Paulette Campbell arrived at the apartment of her grandparents, Wylene and Bobby Floyd of Miami Gardens. Upon entering their home, she discovered the body of her grandparents. Wylene had already succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Her grandfather Bobby was still alive, but needed immediate medical attention. Bobby was transported emergently to Jackson Memorial Hospital where his condition is unknown at the present time.

The Miami personal injury attorneys at Leesfield & Partners have led the legislative battle in the State of Florida which gave birth to a new law finally requiring that commercial buildings be equipped with CO detectors. More information on the Florida legislation pertaining to Carbon Monoxide exposure can be found here.

On average, 60,000 Americans suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning every year. The grave danger associated with carbon monoxide is the nature of the deadly gas itself. Carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless and slightly lighter than air. Undetectable to humans, it is highly toxic and can be deadly when leaked in high concentration.

Published on: October 11, 2012

Construction Site Accident in Doral: Collapse of Parking Garage Results in 2 Fatalities

By Leesfield & Partners

At around noon on Wednesday October 10, 2012, a large portion of a five-story building collapsed without warning, killing 2 construction workers, injuring several others, and another man is still missing at this hour.

The cause of this tragic incident is not yet known, but the police, construction investigators, and code experts are currently on site to determine what may have provoked the under construction parking garage at Miami-Dade College in Doral, Florida, to fall like a house of cards.

Last night around midnight, rescuers found a worker who had been trapped under the rubble for almost 12 hours. Attempts were made to extract the man, but the decision was made at around midnight last night to amputate both his legs in order to save his life. About one hour later, the man was cut above both knees, freed from under the collapsed concrete and rushed to the local hospital by ambulance.

Rick Rutigliano, an electrical supervisor who was on site at the time of the collapse, was on the other side of the building when he began to hear and feel a loud rumble. He ran to the other side of the building and saw the destruction that had just occurred. He later told the authorities that the collapse seem to have started after a crane set down an expansion beam on top of another beam. It has yet to be determined whether this was the cause or even a contributing factor to the incident.

It is believed that the two workers who lost their lives, as well as the 7 injured and one missing person are all construction workers employed by the garage contractor, Ajax Building Corporation, headquartered out of Tallahassee, Florida, and doing construction work in all southeastern States.

The garage was scheduled to open to the public in less than two months. It was a $22.5 construction contract which came to a tragic halt yesterday. Below the parking garage, office and classroom space were also built to house stores and students on campus.

This marks the second garage collapse in less than a month in South Florida. Unfortunately, fatalities related to construction accidents if far from uncommon. In 2011, construction work is the leading industry in the entire country with the most fatalities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Continue reading