CA Jury Awards Drowning Victim's Family $14 Million

Rick Patterson

Attorney

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

A Santa Barbara jury has awarded the family of Yoni Gottesman nearly $14 million in compensatory economic and non-economic damages after he drowned in a Cathedral Oaks Athletic Club swimming pool in 2005. The health club group, Cal-West, was named along with 10 other defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit by the lawyers representing the four-year-old boy.

The defendants were accused of negligence, which led to the drowning on the first day of the Cathedral Oaks children's camp.

Attorneys for the Gottesman's proved Cathedral Oaks was further negligent because they did not hold a license to operate a children’s camp.

The judge placed a gag order on the jury after the initial $14 million verdict was found. The jury will hear punitive damages testimony and rule again. Punitive damages will be determined, by the jury, after further testimony against Cal-West and the health club is heard. Civil trial attorneys argue for punitive damages to punish Cathedral Oaks and Cal-West, something compensatory damages does not cover.