In addition to the tragic story of the Newton family that died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their New Hampshire vacation cottage, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly recently reported on the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the family of a live-in caregiver who died along with her 90-year-old client.
The house was owned by a trust managed by the elderly woman’s son. The caretaker’s estate brought suit and obtained a preliminary injunction requiring that the proceeds of the sale of the house plus any insurance proceeds be placed in escrow pending resolution of the lawsuit.
During the litigation the company that serviced the heating system for the house was brought in as an additional defendant with the trust and the HVAC company pointing fingers at one another. The HVAC company claimed that the furnace was operating properly and had proper ventilation, the only problem being the homeowner’s failure to install carbon monoxide detectors.
Ultimately, the case settled for $1.775 million, 95% percent of the proceeds of the sale of the house plus payments from both the homeowner’s insurance company and the HVAC company’s liability insurer.
The moral of the story: Install and test carbon monoxide detectors. If you are a caregiver and have the bargaining power, make sure that the homeowner has done the same. In this case, the caregiver was an immigrant from Jamaica leaving three children living in other states and countries.