If you’re a parent with a child in daycare, chances are you have a level of expectation that your child will be well cared for while you’re away. Unfortunately, accidents happen, and sometimes those accidents result in lawsuits. For example, the family of a toddler who drowned back on October 16, 2016, at an unlicensed Pittsfield Township daycare filed a lawsuit yesterday against “a number of people connected to the property.” The toddler was 22-month-old Annie Mae Flynn.
If you’re a parent with a child in daycare, chances are you have a level of expectation that your child will be well cared for while you’re away. Unfortunately, accidents happen, and sometimes those accidents result in lawsuits. For example, the family of a toddler who drowned back on October 16, 2016, at an unlicensed Pittsfield Township daycare filed a lawsuit yesterday against “a number of people connected to the property.” The toddler was 22-month-old Annie Mae Flynn.
The lawsuit was filed in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Amy L. Papesh, the administrator of the deceased child’s estate.
The fatal accident occurred at a home in the 17000 block of West Road. While under the care of Elizabeth Zenda, the 50-year-old owner of an unlicensed daycare, “Annie and her 21-month-old male cousin exited a gated play area in the back of the house, climbed underneath a 7-inch gap below a swing gate barring entry onto a deck surrounding the above ground pool where both were found floating,” according to testimony from Zenda’s bench trial.
At the time of the incident, Zenda and her daughter-in-law, Tanya Zenda, were inside discussing wedding plans when another child entered the home with “evidence that he had been in the pool.” Alarmed, the two adults went outside to investigate, only to find Annie and her cousin in the pool. Tragically, Annie was later “pronounced dead at a local hospital,” and to this day her cousin “suffers from brain damage from his time underwater.”
In July, a bench trial regarding the case took place, during which Elizabeth Zenda was “found guilty by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James L. Miraldi.” As a result, she is serving four years in prison for “involuntary manslaughter and two counts of endangering children.”
Tanya Zenda, on the other hand, has a pretrial scheduled for October 31 in Oberlin Municipal Court regarding one count of child endangering.
In addition to naming Elizabeth and Tanya Zenda as defendants, the suit also names Edgar Rowe and Marietta Rowe as defendants, along with 10 other “10 unidentified individuals and 10 unidentified corporations.” According to the suit, “Edgar and Marietta Rowe are the listed owners of the property.” The other unidentified corporations and individuals are listed as defendants “in case any other individuals or corporations have ownership over the property or the pool where the incident took place.”
The suit is seeking damages in the “amount in excess of $25,000” for two counts of negligence. At the moment, the defendants named in the suit have yet to respond to requests for comment.
Sources:
Lawsuit filed against Pittsfield Township baby sitter convicted in drowning
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