Wrongful Death Case - $500,000 Recovery
WRSMH took a plaintiff's verdict on liability against a municipality in the drowning death of a 43 year old Korean male at a public lake. The jury held the municipality 60 % liable for the death of this father of a six year old boy while the family was attending a picnic at an amusement park on the Fourth of July. While the husband was barbecuing, his wife and son went off to enjoy the amusement park. Upon their return, they found our client being placed into an ambulance, a victim of drowning in the lake adjoining the picnic area. Apparently the father went into the lake to cool off on a day when the temperature was 86 degrees with 60% percent humidity.
The firm showed the jury that there had been signs warning park patrons of the danger of the lake and not to go in. Unfortunately those signs had been removed or destroyed prior to the date in question and the park knew they were missing but not for how long. The park personnel also knew on that day that people were entering the lake early in the morning and did nothing to prevent people from going in the water. What made the case difficult was the fact that the autopsy performed showed that our client had an extremely elevated blood alcohol level, twice the legal limit. The firm demonstrated to the jury that our client was not drunk when he arrived at the park, and had there been warning signs, they would have made a strong impact on our client.
After a finding on liability the case was settled for half a million dollars for the wrongful death of our client. Our client had recently lost his job as a tour bus driver. There was no pain and suffering by our client as demonstrated by the medical records.