CT Court Upholds Judgment for Lifeguards in Wrongful Death Action
by
Joseph C. Maya on May. 01, 2017
Accident & Injury Personal Injury Accident & Injury Wrongful Death Accident & Injury
Summary: Blog post about the liability of lifeguards sued for wrongful death of claimant's daughter.
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A claimant was precluded from recovering in a wrongful death action when he failed to prove that the proximate cause of his decedent's death by drowning was the breach of the duties owed by municipal lifeguards to the decedent. Plaintiff claimant appealed a decision from the Superior Court in the Judicial District of Stamford-Norwalk (Connecticut), which entered judgment, after a jury trial, for defendant municipal lifeguards in the claimant's action for the wrongful death of his daughter from drowning in a municipally owned and operated recreational swimming facility.
The claimant brought an action against the lifeguards for the wrongful death of his daughter from drowning in a municipally owned and operated recreational swimming facility. The superior court entered judgment, after a jury verdict, for the lifeguards. The claimant appealed and the court found no error and affirmed the judgment. The evidence indicated that the decedent drowned with no one witnessing the event and that the lifeguards had earlier in the day observed that the decedent was a poor swimmer and had warned her to stay within the delineated shallow water area. When the lifeguards realized the decedent was missing they conducted a search, which resulted in the decedent's body being discovered outside the shallow water line but within the permitted swimming area. The claimant failed to prove that the lifeguard's conduct was the proximate cause of the decedent's death, and such failure precluded any recovery. The interrogatories submitted to the jury indicated that the lifeguards had breached their duties of care owed to the decedent but that the breach was not the proximate cause of the decedent's death. The court found no error in the judgment entered for the lifeguards.
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Source: Wei Ping Wu v. Fairfield, 204 Conn. 435 (Conn. Jul 21, 1987)
