>Village seeks to add names to Graydon lawsuit
Friday, February 12, 2010
BY MICHAEL SEDON
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/84234917_Village_seeks_to_add_names_.html
A Bergen County judge may rule next week whether attorneys representing the Village of Ridgewood can file a third-party complaint against the parents of a 13-year-old Korean boy who drowned at Graydon Pool in 2008.
Soo Hyeon Park died July 15, 2008, when he drowned in the deep end of the municipal pool, according to a police report.
The boy’s family filed a complaint with Bergen County Superior Court on Feb. 19, 2009, claiming the village was negligent in the drowning and seeking “pecuniary damages and losses.”
On Feb. 3, Rivkin Radler LLC, the law firm representing the village in this matter, filed with the court a motion for leave to file a third-party complaint.
The village’s third-party complaint “alleges negligence” against the boy’s parents, Youn Wha Jung and Seong Wook Park.
The brief submitted in support of the motion by attorney Francis J. Leddy III, representing the village through the municipal Joint Insurance Fund (JIF), claims that the parents “failed to ensure that the decedent [Soo Hyeon Park] understood and complied with all Graydon Pool rules and regulations prior to entering the pool.”
Those rules included taking and passing the “deep water certification test” required for swimmers to be allowed in the 12-foot-deep section of the pool, according to the brief sent to the judge. The brief also alleges that the parents “were grossly negligent in the supervision of decedent and failed to adequately respond to him as he drowned.”
“Therefore, should liability attach to the village in this matter, Youn Wha Jung and Seong Wook Park will be, at least, partially liable for those damages awarded against the village as a result of the wrongful death of the decedent,” Leddy’s brief states.
Neil S. Weiner, the attorney representing the deceased boy’s family, further explained the implications of including Jung, the administrator of the boy’s estate, as a defendant.
“If the judge permits Ridgewood to essentially sue the mom, arguing that ‘it’s not our fault; it’s partially her fault, among others,’ … then if the mother served as both the administrator of her dead son’s estate, she would have a conflict of interest,” Weiner explained. “You can’t be both a defendant and a plaintiff at the same time.”
Weiner said the claim against Jung would require a new administrator of the estate to be appointed.
The village’s complaint also “alleges negligence” against the deceased’s two teenage friends and their parents, all of Ridgewood, as members of Graydon Pool. The complaint claims they should have been “aware that the decedent and his family did not speak fluent English. These parties breached their duty of care to the decedent by failing to ensure that the decedent understood and complied with all Graydon Pool rules and regulations.”
The deceased and his parents were visiting Ridgewood from South Korea and were at the pool as guests of the Ridgewood residents when the drowning occurred, according to a police report filed at the time.
Weiner described the village’s third-party complaint as being “very odd” in this specific case, and admitted that if it is granted by the judge in its entirety, it would complicate the proceedings by requiring the Ridgewood family and the deceased’s parents to obtain separate legal representation.
The third-party complaint also alleges that “Youn Wha Jung and Seong Wook Park, waited fifty (50) minutes before notifying the Graydon Pool lifeguards and staff that the decedent had drowned,” according to the document.
full story The Ridgewood News…
E-mail: sedon@northjersey.com
https://www.northjersey.com/news/84234917_Village_seeks_to_add_names_.html
This is 100% Ridgewood’s fault. The crux of the issue is poor water clarity. The health code clearly states that the bottom must be visible in a pool.
James, you have posted this article from over six years ago…why?
it was post 6 years ago