The family of a tenant who died from injuries sustained after she fell through a water-damaged kitchen floor accepted a $5.25 million settlement from the landlord and government agencies. After noticing “a continuous flood of water” coming from the tenant’s unit for several days, a neighbor discovered tenant stuck in the floor of the ground level duplex. She was in respiratory distress. Her leg was trapped between a floor joist and a hot water pipe underneath the floor. While she remained trapped in the floor, heat from the hot water pipe had seared her leg flesh. She lost pulse during extrication attempts and on five additional occasions before expiring later that day.
In the months leading up to tenant falling through the floor, large amounts of water accumulated on the floor because of plumbing leaking underneath the kitchen sink. Tenant had a long history of disabling mental illness that included schizophrenia. However, her mental health challenges had not prevented her from making the landlord aware of the leak on multiple occasions through her children and her state case manager. Landlord failed to fix the water leak or the resulting water damage to the floor, which led to its collapse. In addition to suing landlord, Oconee Community Service Board, and the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health (“OCSB”) and Development Disabilities were named as co-defendants. Plaintiffs accused the boards of having negligently managed tenant’s care in violation of established policies and procedures. Two years before her death, OCSB removed tenant from a residential facility and an apartment, to live on her own, despite her treatment providers indicating that she needed to stay at her current level of supervision or receive a more supervised living arrangement. Because the boards discharged tenant from semi-independent care, did not remove her from landlord’s defective property and failed to maintain case management visits, plaintiff alleged that the co-defendants shared liability with the landlord for the tenant’s injury and death. Landlord agreed to settle the case for $5 million in addition to the state’s payout of $249,999. See the plaintiff’s complaint here.
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