$30.7 Million Verdict After Three Brothers Fell Through the Ice on a Condominium Community's Lake
After trial: A contemporaneous news report said the property owners association was expected to appeal the verdict, meaning the family would not see the money right away. No published Indiana Court of Appeals opinion in this case turned up in a search of the state's appellate records, so it is not publicly confirmed whether an appeal was filed, whether the case was later resolved privately, or whether the full $30.7 million was ultimately paid.
Won by Schafer & Schafer LLP.
On the morning of March 11, 2001, three brothers went through the ice on Lake Holiday inside the Lakes of the Four Seasons, a gated condominium community in Crown Point, Indiana. One 11-year-old drowned, his 10-year-old brother was pulled out with a traumatic brain injury, and the third boy, the drowned child's twin, was rescued by a diver. At trial in February 2011 the family's lawyers showed that an overflow crib circulating water beneath the surface had thinned the ice at that spot while staying invisible from shore, and that the property owners association had posted no warning sign, put up no barrier and kept no rescue equipment at the lake. A Lake Circuit Court jury assigned all of the fault to the association and awarded $30.7 million, itemized as $25.5 million for the brain injury, $5 million for the death and $200,000 for the surviving twin. A news report at the time said an appeal was expected, and no published Indiana appellate decision in the case has since turned up.
What happened
On the morning of Sunday, March 11, 2001, three brothers, 11-year-old twins and their 10-year-old brother, were playing with a neighbor near Lake Holiday, one of three lakes inside the Lakes of the Four Seasons, a gated condominium community in Crown Point, Indiana. One of the twins and the neighbor walked out onto the ice, which felt solid at first. As they turned back toward the shoreline the ice gave way, and the boy went into the water and held onto the edge.
His 10-year-old brother ran out to help him and fell through as well. The other twin, seeing both of them in the water, rushed over and also went in. A member of the rescue crew, working as a diver, pulled the first boy out. The 10-year-old was recovered with a traumatic brain injury. The twin who had gone in last drowned. Their father had left for work at 7 a.m. and came home about three hours later to find one son dead and another in a coma.
The father sued the Lakes of the Four Seasons Property Owners Association in March 2003. The heart of the case was a structure in the lake called an overflow crib, which worked with a nearby earthen dam to regulate the water level by moving water beneath the surface. The family's lawyers argued that the moving water thinned the ice roughly thirty feet from the crib while leaving nothing visible from the shore, and that the association, which ran the community's lakes, had posted no warning sign, put up no fence or barrier and kept no rescue equipment such as a rope or a throwable buoy at the water.
The case went to trial in Lake Circuit Court in Crown Point in February 2011, nearly ten years after the accident, and ran five days. Timothy S. Schafer of Schafer & Schafer tried it with his sons Timothy and Todd. Schafer opened by calling the association's director of operations, who agreed that the community posted signs directing golf carts to stay on the path so they would not damage the fairways, and who testified that cost was the main reason no warning sign or safety equipment had gone up at the lake. A dam safety expert and the chief of dam safety for Illinois testified that the national standard calls for a warning sign, a barrier and a device a rescuer can throw. The diver who had pulled the first boy from the water testified he was certain the overflow crib was running that day because he had heard it while he was underwater, which cut against the defense position that the equipment had not been operating.
On February 25, 2011, the jury assigned 100 percent of the fault to the property owners association and returned a verdict of $30.7 million: $25.5 million for the brain-injured son, $5 million for the drowned boy's death, and $200,000 for the surviving twin's psychological trauma from watching his brother drown. By the time of trial the injured son was 20 and read at a third grade level. Schafer told reporters afterward that the family would not see the money right away because an appeal was expected. No published Indiana Court of Appeals decision in this case turned up in a search of the state's appellate records, so it is not publicly documented whether an appeal was filed, whether the case was later resolved privately, or whether the full $30.7 million was collected.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Sylvia Hsieh, The Daily Record Newswire, published Mar. 18, 2011 (archived copy; the live legalnews.com page now returns a server error): names Timothy S. Schafer of Schafer & Schafer as the winning trial attorney, tried with his sons Timothy and Todd, and establishes the $30.7 million verdict, the itemized award of $25.5 million for the brain injury, $5 million for the death and $200,000 for the surviving twin, the 100 percent fault finding, the sequence in which the three boys went into the water, the overflow crib and earthen dam, the absence of a sign, fence or rescue equipment, the director of operations' testimony about cost and the golf cart signs, the dam safety expert testimony, and the rescue diver's testimony that the crib was running
- 2.NBC Chicago, Feb. 25, 2011: confirms the $30.7 million verdict, the Feb. 25, 2011 verdict date, the five-day trial in Lake County, the March 11, 2001 incident date, the defendant Lakes of the Four Seasons property owners association, the drowning of one brother and the permanent brain damage to another, the injured son reading at a third grade level at age 20, plaintiffs' attorney Timothy Schafer, and the expectation of an appeal
- 3.Susan Brown, The Times of Northwest Indiana, Feb. 26, 2011: confirms the Lake Circuit Court jury and the award of nearly $31 million, the location at Lake Holiday inside Lakes of the Four Seasons, the March 2003 filing of the suit, the overflow crib and earthen dam draining water under the ice about thirty feet from where the boys fell through, and that an appeal was expected
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