Earlier this year, 24-year-old Anthony Burgess Jr. drowned in a pond after saving his three-year-old daughter. Now the family of the child is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against an apartment complex and car manufacturer, “alleging they are responsible for the death.” The accident occurred on March 26 “after Burgess Jr. jumped into a pond when his car rolled in with his daughter, Amina Garret, inside.” Amina survived, and since the incident, Burgess Jr. has been hailed as a hero.
Earlier this year, 24-year-old Anthony Burgess Jr. drowned in a pond after saving his three-year-old daughter. Now the family of the child is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against an apartment complex and car manufacturer, “alleging they are responsible for the death.” The accident occurred on March 26 “after Burgess Jr. jumped into a pond when his car rolled in with his daughter, Amina Garret, inside.” Amina survived, and since the incident, Burgess Jr. has been hailed as a hero.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed last month on April 13 “against Core Riverbend Apartments, Core Realty Holding Management, Inc., and General Motors Corporation.” But why is the family claiming the apartment complex and car manufacturer are responsible for the death? For starters, while discussing why the apartment complex was named in the suit, the family’s lawyer, Dan Chamberlain, “used a basketball to demonstrate what he calls a safety concern at the apartment complex, a sloping parking lot with nothing to prevent a car from rolling into the pond below.” He said:
“There’s no warning signs, no barriers, there’s nothing to help people. There need to be guards and warning signs. If you look at this apartment complex, there’s one staircase to get out of the retention pond, and unfortunately, my client was not able to get to the staircase.”
TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com
The lawsuit also argues that the “apartment complex had a duty to protect Anthony from bodily injury or death on its premises.”
What about the car manufacturer of Burgess Jr.’s vehicle? According to the lawsuit, Call 6 Investigates ran the VIN on the 2008 Pontiac G6 “and found an unfixed recall for a defect that could cause it to roll away even if the shifter is in park.” The family was never aware of the recall, and so decided to include General Motors in the suit claiming the company was “aware of the dangerous and defective product it manufactured.” When discussing the matter, Chamberlain said:
“GM and other companies need to do more to make sure people drive safe cars, and this was not a safe car. If people knew their car would kill them, would they drive the car? No.”
Given how recent the accident was, Anthony’s family is still reeling from his loss and is devastated. Chamberlain said, “You have three kids without a dad. Was it preventable? Absolutely yes.”
So far both General Motors and Core Riverbend Apartments have yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Sources:
Wrongful death lawsuit filed in pond drowning death of Indianapolis father
Wrongful death lawsuit filed after Indy man drowned saving daughter when car rolled into pond
Join the conversation!