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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The daughters of a woman who died from injuries suffered when she tripped over an exercise rope that allegedly was negligently left in an area where it could be hazardous to the elderly filed court papers Monday against the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles for wrongful death and survivorship.
The still unofficial Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit brought by Heather Lawless, Lisa Rene Grant and Shannon Briggs seeks unspecified compensatory damages as well as compensation for funeral and burial expenses. A YMCA representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The three women are the offspring of Judith Grant, who died last Nov. 2, nearly two months after she tripped and fell outside the Palisades-Malibu YMCA at about 3:25 p.m. Sept. 6. Lawless also is the executor of her mother's estate.
Judith Grant spent the remaining days of her life after the fall in "extreme pain, discomfort and distress" due to injuries to her head, neck and spine, the court papers state.
After an exercise activity involving the shaking of ropes outside the facility, the staff left the strand in the path leading from the entrance ramp to the sidewalk without warning passersby of the possibility they could trip on it, according to the court papers. Judith Grant got up from a bench upon which she was sitting and walked toward the sidewalk when she tumbled on one of the ropes, the court papers state.
The three daughters have lost the "care, protection, consideration, companionship, love, solace and affection" of their mother, according to the court papers.