CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Bruce Broillet delivering his opening statement
San Diego, CA - A California state court jury heard opening statements Tuesday in a wrongful death lawsuit accusing Hyatt Hotels Corporation of failing to perform a timely wellness check on a diabetic guest who missed her scheduled checkout time after falling into a coma, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The family of decedent Cindy Gonzalez claims hotel staff failed to follow their own safety and security procedures after she missed her checkout time while staying at a Hyatt hotel in San Diego for a work trip in 2022. Gonzalez had slipped into a diabetic coma and passed out between the two beds in her room and was not discovered by hotel staff until the following day.
Her family’s attorney blamed Hyatt for delaying her medical care by extending her reservation without authorization and failing to send security to Gonzalez’s room after she missed her scheduled checkout time, however an attorney for Hyatt maintained the events fell within the rolling 24-hour window for mandatory wellness checks, that Gonzalez had her “do not disturb” sign up, and that hotel staff had no knowledge she suffered from diabetes supposedly exacerbated by a recent Covid exposure.
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Plaintiff attorney Bruce Broillet of Greene Broillet & Wheeler LLP told the San Diego County jury that Gonzalez’s death at the age of 43 could have been prevented if Hyatt staff followed their own policies and sent security to her room immediately after she missed her checkout, and a housekeeper who visited the room failed to make contact with her.
Gonzales was discovered by security staff in severe distress the next day after her family filed a missing persons report with local law enforcement, but despite being transported to a hospital she died a short time later.
Broillet explained how Gonzalez began to feel ill the evening before being scheduled to depart the hotel, and that her condition rapidly deteriorated as she developed a potentially fatal condition for diabetics called ketoacidosis. He detailed how a housekeeper sent to her room shortly after her checkout time couldn’t see Gonzalez passed out between the two beds due to her short stature, instead informing the front desk that she only noted the presence of Gonzalez’s luggage and her small dog in the room which Broillet characterized as a “service animal.”
Broillet began his opening statement with a detailed recitation of Hyatt’s checkout and front desk policies, and he argued front desk staff failed to adhere to those policies by extending Gonzales’s reservation instead of sending security to her room after failing to make contact with her.
“If the person is supposed to be checked out, housekeeping is supposed to notify the front desk and the front desk is supposed to reach that person,” he insisted, noting that the first time security was sent to Gonzalez’s room was after law enforcement contacted the hotel.
Broillet, who did not address potential damages in his opening, told jurors the fact Gonzalez had a “do not disturb” sign on the door made no difference, arguing that Hyatt’s policy requires wellness checks within each 24-hour period regardless of whether a guest requested additional privacy or not. He blamed Hyatt for failing to ensure their employees knew these procedures, insisting that following them as intended would have likely saved Gonzalez’s life.
“We have some questions as you’ll hear in this case about the quality and the amount of training that these people got about these procedures,” he stressed.
Representing Hyatt, defense attorney Traci Owens of Burger Meyer & D’Angelo LLP argued hotel staff had no knowledge Gonzalez suffered from any medical problems, and that the delivery of room service to her room at 10pm the previous night counted as a wellness check and reset the 24-hour clock.
“There was nothing for Hyatt to ignore because Hyatt did not know,” Owens argued, telling jurors Hyatt should not be held responsible for being unaware of a medical emergency that took place behind a closed door with an active “do not disturb” indicator.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Traci Owens delivering her opening statement
She explained that without being previously informed Gonzalez had health problems that hotel staff could only assume she was not in distress after successfully placing and receiving her room service order, which she characterized as a staff contact that counted as a wellness check.
“When room contact was made there was objectively no sign of distress,” Owens emphasized.
She argued the housekeeper who briefly looked into Gonzalez’s room after she missed her checkout quickly withdrew due to the presence of her dog, noting the animal had not been registered with the hotel and that housekeeping staff is specifically advised against confronting unfamiliar animals for safety reasons. Owens also attributed the failure to attempt to reach Gonzalez directly to errors in the contact information provided by a third party booking service.
Owens, who repeatedly mentioned the Hyatt “is a hotel not a hospital” also maintained the events took place when Covid was still an active concern in hotels, so that in addition to wanting to respect guests’ privacy preferences hotel staff tried to avoid additional guest contact outside of required 24-hour wellness checks.
“Contact was minimized over being maximized, and that was a safety and wellness issue,” she stated.
The trial, taking place before Judge Kevin Enright, is expected to take roughly 10 days to complete. CVN’s gavel-to-gavel live and on-demand coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Jose Ramirez, et al. v. Hyatt Corporation, et al., case number 37-2023-00056444-CU-PO-CTL in San Diego County Superior Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
