Mom of boy who drowned in hotel pool settles lawsuit for $1M

The mother of a six-year-old boy who drowned in a cloudy hotel swimming pool has confidentially settled a lawsuit against the hotel and the woman who was looking after the boy for $1 million, the mother’s attorneys report.

Mark Melrose and Adam Melrose of Asheville report that the boy, his father, his brothers, and his father’s girlfriend were traveling for a baseball tournament in September 2017. That night, they joined a group of other parents and players at the hotel’s indoor swimming pool. (The name of the hotel and all of the individuals involved in the incident were withheld pursuant to a confidentiality agreement.)

The father later took one of his sons back to their hotel room and asked his girlfriend to watch the six-year-old, who could not swim. The boy was hanging onto the wall of the pool and made his way to the five-foot deep end. As he reached the ladder, he lost his grip and eventually sunk to the bottom of the pool. Moments later, the girlfriend noticed that the boy was missing, and she and others searched for him in the hotel parking lot and his hotel room. After nine minutes, another child jumped into the pool and discovered the boy at the bottom. He died at the scene. 

The entire incident was captured by a hotel security camera. 

“I’ve been practicing for 30 years and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to watch,” Mark Melrose said. “That child’s drowning–you can see it as it happens, and it is just awful.”

The boy’s mother sued the hotel’s owner, who in turn sued the girlfriend. Thomas Griffiths, a pool safety expert, testified that the pool’s cloudy water was the proximate cause of the boy’s drowning, and that if the main drain at the deepest part of the pool can’t be seen because of water clarity issues, the pool must be closed immediately. 

Dr. Derek Covington, an expert in undersea and hyperbaric medicine, testified that had the child been discovered in the first five minutes of going under, he likely would have survived. He said that there were a number of people who swam directly over the child as he was drowning and were unable to see the child due to the cloudy water. He also testified to the extent of suffering that the child would have experienced as he was drowning.

The identities of the hotel’s attorneys were also withheld, but Mark Melrose said that the hotel argued that the water in the pool was clear when they tested it that morning, and that even if the water was cloudy, it became cloudy too quickly for the hotel to address the issue. But Mark Melrose said the video footage showed a hotel employee bringing towels to the area minutes before the drowning, and the water was cloudy. 

The hotel also contended that the father’s girlfriend was the sole proximate cause of the child’s drowning due to her failure to properly supervise the child, while the father’s girlfriend admitted that the combination of her failure to supervise and the water cloudiness both contributed to his death, Mark Melrose said. The hotel argued that any recovery should be reduced by half under North Carolina’s slayer statute, because the father was partially at fault.

Under a settlement reached on April 6, the hotel agreed to pay $700,000, and the father’s girlfriend agreed to pay $300,000. Bill Brazil of Brazil & Burke in Asheville mediated the settlement.

Follow Bill Cresenzo on Twitter @bcresenzonclw

SETTLEMENT REPORT — WRONGFUL DEATH

Amount: $1 million ($700,000 from the hotel, and $300,000 from the individual third-party defendant)

Injuries alleged: Death

Case name: Confidential

Court: Confidential

Mediator: Bill Brazil of Brazil & Burke in Asheville

Date of settlement: April 6

Most helpful experts: Thomas Griffiths of Abington, Pennsylvania (pool safety) and Derek Covington of Gainesville, Florida (undersea and hyperbaric medicine)

Insurance carrier: Auto Owners Insurance Company and State Farm Fire & Casualty Company

Attorneys for plaintiff: Mark Melrose and Adam Melrose of Asheville

Attorneys for defendant: Withheld