$7.5 Million Verdict – Young Man Dies in Preventable Drowning Incident

Attorney Michael Feldman obtained a $7.5 million verdict for a family who lost their 24-year-old son in a terrible preventable drowning event. The tragic event incident happened occurred when an Air B&B owner decided to make his property available via a deceptive advertisement. While the property was adjacent to a pond, it was not a calm or shallow pond as he claimed. In fact, there was a power plant that had turbines under the water to generate the power. The Air B&B owner provided kayaks, but in violation of the navigation law, failed to provide the required personal flotation devices. He also failed to disclose the currents and that posted in the woods were plenty of no swimming signs. Even though our client received an A in swimming while in high school, and he kept it up while as a medical student, the unexpected currents caused his kayak to capsize and he was unable to get to shore. After 5 minutes of struggling and while his friends desperately tried to save him, he went under one last time. His body was found near the power plant the next day. New York State does not allow for pecuniary loss (damages that we can quantify in financial terms) as he had no dependents, and the judge refused to allow the jury to deliberate regarding the economic losses to his parents. The only thing left to argue was conscious pain and suffering and fear of impending death. After two hours of deliberation the jury awarded $7.5 million. With interest, the total award is $13,000,000.