Many people who visited a Gatlinburg-area zip line attraction contracted an illness, “possibly from contaminated well water.” As a result, a family who visited the zip line attraction and fell ill has decided to file a “complaint for class-action certification and damages against Climb Works LLC.” The complaint was filed by Tristan and Melissa Mantheys from the New Orleans-area.
For many people, ziplining is a time of adventure and fun, a time where few people worry about contracting some sort of illness. Unfortunately, many people who visited a Gatlinburg-area zip line attraction contracted an illness, “possibly from contaminated well water.” As a result, a family who visited the zip line attraction and fell ill has decided to file a “complaint for class-action certification and damages against Climb Works LLC.” The complaint was filed by Tristan and Melissa Mantheys from the New Orleans-area.
According to the couple’s complaint, they visited the Climb Works LLC attraction back on July 5 and were “among those exposed to what the state later determined was uninspected well water containing E. coli and norovirus.” Shortly after their visit, the family fell ill. However, the complaint doesn’t mention the “extent of their illness or say how many family members were sick.” The suit states:
“Climb Works made available drinking water for the Mantheys and other customers, who drank it…As a result of drinking said water, the plaintiffs became ill…Climb Works failed to test the water and take other precautions, including warning customers.”
In total, the Mantheys’ lawsuit is seeking “up to $50,000 in compensatory damages,” along with a “judgment for compensatory damages congruent with the damages they have sustained for other class members.” On top of that, the complaint wants Climb Works LLC to cover the cost of lawyer and court fees.
The suit is being handled by Stephen Gillman with Knoxville law firm Pryor, Priest, Harber, Floyd and Coffey and New Orleans lawyer Warren Horn with Heller, Draper, Patrick, Horn and Manthey LLC on behalf of anyone who “may have been exposed to contaminated water while at the attraction May 11-July 11,” including the Mantheys family.
Both Gillman and Horn believe that the number of eligible plaintiffs could be in the hundreds. They plan to notify anyone eligible to participate in the suit via mail.
Shortly after illness reports began trickling in, a state investigation found “Climb Works had gone eight years without well water monitoring, as required by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.” The state’s health department also tested the water, revealing “the presence of both E. coli and a contagious norovirus.”
When commenting on the incident that left his client’s sick, Gillman issued a statement saying:
“The Mantheys came from New Orleans to the Smokies to enjoy our mountains, the sights and the attractions, one of which was the zip line course at Climb Works. The Manthey family’s experience is a similar story, we believe, to potentially hundreds of individuals and families who had their vacations wrecked as a result of what we believe were avoidable circumstances, and we believe Climb Works could have and should have, taken precautions necessary to prevent what the Mantheys and many other families had to deal with.”
Sources:
Family sues CLIMB Works after drinking water potentially contaminated by E. coli
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