Fischer Redavid's John Fischer, left, and Wicker Smith's Michael Reed deliver closings at trial over the fatal drowning of a four-year-old. Watch the trial here.
Gainesville, FL— Jurors last week handed down a $3.75 million verdict for the drowning death of a four-year old, but apportioned a significant share of responsibility to the child’s parents, likely slashing the final award. Figueroa v. American Commercial Realty Corp., et al., 2023-CA-001916.
The Florida State Eighth Circuit Court jury, in Alachua County, handed down the award for the 2023 death of Kash Hodges, who drowned in a retention pond behind Gainesville, Florida’s Oakwood Commons Shopping Center. Jurors concluded the child was an invitee to the property, and found the property’s manager, American Commercial Realty Corp., 37 percent responsible for his death, and the property’s owner, Live Oak Shoppes Group LLC, 10 percent responsible.
The total award last Tuesday includes $2.5 million to the child’s mother, Taychianna Figueroa, and $1.25 million to his father, Gabriel Hodges. However, jurors apportioned 38 percent of responsibility for the fatal drowning to Figueroa and another 15 percent to Hodges, likely reducing the post-verdict award to roughly $1.76 million.
The parents' attorneys had sought up to $200 million for the child's death.
In an email after the verdict, the parents’ attorney, Fischer Redavid’s Jordan Redavid, told CVN that the highest settlement offer before trial was $1 million.
The child lived with Figueroa in the back area of the pet grooming business at which she worked, and which was located in the shopping center. On the day of his death, the child awoke from a nap while his father slept and his mother was off-site, passed through a baby gate in the living area, made his way outside through an unlocked front door, and ultimately drowned in the pond.
The six-day trial turned largely on who bore responsibility for the child’s drowning. During his closing Friday, the parents' attorney, Fischer Redavid’s John Fischer, reviewed evidence he said showed the defendants failed to maintain the pond, allowing its slope to become dangerously steep, then failed to fence the pond to prevent anyone from falling into the water.
“[These are] the two choices they had: they could fix it, or fence it,” Fischer said, noting the defendants chose neither option. “Is that what a reasonably careful corporation would do? And the answer is no.”
But the defense contends the child’s parents bear responsibility for the drowning. During his closing, Wicker Smith’s Michael Reed walked jurors through evidence he said showed Figueroa failed to wake the toddler’s father and ultimately decided against returning from her car to lock the front door before she left the site.
“It isn’t as though she forgot,” Reed said. “She knew that she was leaving that door unlocked, and she didn’t turn around and come back.”
In his post-verdict email, Redavid expressed mixed emotions. “Although the verdict is largely disappointing, at least it cemented as true what we believed all along: these defendants were negligent and a legal cause of [the child’s] death,” Redavid wrote. “For years, my clients were made to believe that their son's death was all their fault. This verdict says otherwise.”
Reed, in an email to CVN after the verdict, highlighted evidence supporting the defendants' claim that they were not at fault. "The pet grooming store was never intended for residential use, and the existence of a retention pond behind the shopping plaza was open and obvious, “ Reed wrote. “[The toddler’s] point of entry is captured on the CCTV and is 23.6 feet from the complained-of area of erosion [at the pond].”
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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