Tag Archives: Trial

by | December 21, 2012 · 6:56 am

Hospitality Industry Safety Risks: New Jersey Hotel "Not Responsible" For Near-Drowning Of Guest; Jury Finds Pool Area "Complied With State Law"

“…the attorney for the hotel owner, said the pool area complied with state law and asked the jury to consider pool safety No Lifeguard Signthe responsibility borne by Robert Smith and his daughter when they entered the pool…”

A jury in Hackensack on Thursday determined that a hotel owner was not responsible for a near-drowning that left a Georgia man brain-injured after he tried to rescue his daughter from the hotel’s swimming pool.

The family of Robert A. Smith sued Ratan R. Park, LLC., owner of the Ramada Inn in Rochelle Park, for damages after Smith was overcome by water on July 4, 2009, when he tried to rescue his 11-year-old daughter, Brianna, after she drifted into the pool’s deep end.

Smith remains in a nursing home with permanent brain injuries that an attorney for Smith’s family said were the direct result of negligence by the hotel’s owner.

In the trial before Superior Court Judge Charles Powers, Attorney Greg Haddad had argued that the pool’s depth markings were inaccurate, its bottom was steeper than it should have been and the hotel owner failed to provide a “life line” separating the pool’s deep and shallow ends, presenting a “perfect storm” for guests who couldn’t swim.

Neither Smith nor his daughter could swim, and O’Hara in closing arguments on Wednesday in state Superior Court told the jury in the civil case that “both had a duty to exercise reasonable care; they had an obligation to make reasonable observations.”

For more:  http://www.northjersey.com/news/Jury_absolves_Rochelle_Park_hotel_of_responsibility_in_near-drowning_in_pool.html

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by | December 8, 2011 · 6:54 am

Hospitality Industry Swimming Pool Risks: Hawaii Hotel Owner Must Face Trial Over "Near Drowning And Incapacitation" Of Woman

“Under Hawai’i law, a landowner has a duty to use reasonable care for the safety of all persons reasonably anticipated to be on the premises….Further, Hawai’i courts recognize that a hotel has a ‘special relationship’ with its guests […] to protect the latter against unreasonable risk of physical harm.”

     “…Court precedent found in 2010 with Robbins v. Marriott Hotel Services establishes that hotels may have to take extra steps to warn guests about “an open and obvious danger.”

 Royal Lahaina did not have an on-duty lifeguard, only a sign that said, “Warning: No Lifeguard on Duty,” according to the complaint.

A California travel agency must face a trial to determine whether it is liable for the near drowning of a woman who used a hotel pool despite a sign that alerted guests there was no lifeguard on duty, a federal judge ruled.

Song Meyong Hee is now “incapacitated” and “a vegetable,” after sinking in a Royal Lahaina Resort swimming pool and suffering severe hypoxia, according to the complaint filed by Song’s husband and children.

For more:  http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/12/06/42001.htm

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Filed under Injuries, Insurance, Liability, Management And Ownership, Pool And Spa, Risk Management

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