Munster child drowns during swimming class

A 4-year old boy from Munster drowned earlier this week during a swim class at a Schererville health club.  He was taking part in a swim class when staff members discovered him on the pool bottom.  He was taken to St. Margret Mercy Hospital and later airlifted to University of Chicago Hospitals where he passed away.

The exact circumstances of how the child became separated from the other kids in the class is not known, and investigators are reviewing security tapes to determine what happened.

From a legal standpoint, there are a number of considerations:

1.  Since the child passed away in Illinois, the family has the option of filing a lawsuit in either Indiana or Illinois.  This is an important decision for the family to make, as there are some differences in the law which may make filing in one state instead of the other more advanatgeous.  In most instances, Illinois wrongful death law is more favorable to accident victims.

2.  The security video will be a crucial piece of evidence.  Even if it does not capture exactly what happened to the child, it will probably provide good insight as to the actions of the health club staff which key in establishing the negligence of the health club.  As an experienced Chicago wrongful death lawyer, one thing that we would do immediately is to take steps to preserve the security video as evidence.

3.  One line of defense that the health club is likely to take up is that the family signed a liability waiver when they enrolled in the class.  If this family does not seek out legal representation, they are likely to accept the word of the health club and its insurer that this will prevent them from recovering compensation in a wrongful death lawsuit.  A couple of points on liability waivers: (1) they sometimes, but do not always hold up in court, so if there is an issue concerning a liability waiver, you should retain counsel, but (2) they never hold up for injuries involving children.  Under Illinois law at least, the liability waiver provides no cover to the health club for the negligence of its employees.