PHILADELPHIA – According to court records, the case brought by a Harleysville family against a Virginia water park for injuries they say they suffered there in an inflatable tube accident nearly three years ago has been dismissed.
Per an order from U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Gerald J. Pappert on July 26, 2017, the case brought by Saji Thomas, Sudha Thomas and their minor child Neethu Saji versus Sea World Parks & Entertainment, LLC, Busch Entertainment, LLC and Sea World Parks, Inc. (doing business as “Water Country USA”), was considered dismissed without prejudice.
The plaintiffs initially filed suit against the defendants in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on May 19, 2017.
On July 12, 2015, the plaintiffs said they were visiting Water Country USA in Williamsburg, Va., when they said they were collectively injured from “a defective and/or improperly maintained and/or utilized tube or other inflatable device, in conjunction with a dangerous and defective condition of the landing zone of the ride, to be used on a water slide on defendants’ property.”
The plaintiffs believed the defendants failed to inspect the inflatable tube or provide a safe unloading area to bring the plaintiffs to a safe stop, among other charges. Each plaintiff suffered serious and permanent injuries including but not limited to, “severe shock, strain and injury to plaintiff’s bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, teeth and other components of the musculoskeletal system.”
With opposing counsel citing issues with diversity of citizenship, as Sea World Parks and Entertainment is based in Orlando, Fla. (and arguing the other two defendants were joined to the suit mistakenly), the defendants had the case removed to federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in June 2017, before the plaintiffs’ request for dismissal of the case without prejudice the following month.
Prior to dismissal and for individual counts of negligence, the plaintiffs were seeking damages, jointly and severally, for a sum in excess of Pennsylvania’s arbitration limits, plus interest and costs in this matter.
The plaintiffs were represented by Russell Krause of Krause Law, in Bala Cynwyd.
The defendants were represented by Laurianne Falcone of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:17-cv-02832
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 170502981
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com