Jury Awards $30.7M In Fatal Accident On Frozen Lake
CROWN POINT, Ind. (CBS) -- It's an emotional, bittersweet night for the parents of three boys who stepped onto a frozen lake in Northwest Indiana and fell through the ice.
One boy died. Another suffered brain damage. Friday, a decade after that tragedy on the ice, a jury is blaming the owners of the property for not protecting the children, CBS 2's Mike Parker reports.
In winter 2001, 11-year-old Andrew Kennedy and his brother, James, two other boys went through the ice on a northwest Indiana lake. Andrew drowned.
James and the other boys survived, although James suffered serious brain damage.
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A jury awarded the family $30.7 million in damages. Lawyers for the family argued that the Lake of the Four Seasons Property Owners Association should have posted signs warning people to stay off the ice, which had suddenly begun to melt in the days before the tragedy.
They also said the association should have roped off the area to keep children away.
"We showed that the cost of a sign was $50, and the cost of a rope was $20," family attorney Tim Schafer said. "You have to have safety equipment here, you have to have warning signs here and you have to restrict access. They did none."
The boys' dad, Thomas Kennedy, says the jury's award will help to pay for the cost of continuing medical care for James, who will likely never speak again.
It's possible on appeal the property owners association might succeed in getting that $30 million negligence award reduced.
