Who is to Blame for Toddler Drowning in Pool of Foreclosed House?
Who is to Blame for Toddler Drowning in Pool of Foreclosed House
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The nation is riddled with foreclosures millions of them. But just one of them proved to be deadly for little Isaac Deiudonne. It snuffed out his life of two years.
In 2009 October Margarrette and Woulby Dieudonne shifted to their new house in Miramar in Florida. Unnoticed their toddler son Isaac strolled out of the front door that was open. After a couple of minutes he was discovered floating with his face down in the pool of the adjacent foreclosed house. The algae covered pool in the backyard of the vacant house spelt death to the little fellow.
Efforts were made by a neighbour to resuscitate him as toxic water spilled out of his month. Isaac was pronounced dead 13 minutes after arriving in the hospital. This tragedy led to a legal suit alleging wrongful death. After the tragedy the couple never moved into the house and made it their home. Margarette is suffering from depression spending sleepless nights. It has been difficult for her to visit his grave even after the passage of a year.
The foreclosed houses across the country have become safety hazards to the general public because of the stagnant pools that breed mosquitoes, nourish harmful rodents and draw playful children to their death.
The legal suit of the Dieudonnes rests on a simple question albeit painful. Who is most responsible for Isaac's death? The parents who were supposed to be guarding him or the owner of the property? The servicing firms or the maintenance companies who were supposed to make the foreclosed property safe and secure?
Like thousands of other foreclosed units across America, the house where the little boy drowned had been mired in legalities for many years. It was difficult to find out who was the owner when the accident took place.
Janet Spence the family lawyer of the couple had to spend months trying to sort out the mess of the snarled chain of titles and transfers. At one stage there were two foreclosure suits simultaneously being taken on the house. Spence came across the irregularities in the documentation that has hit the headlines recently. Many of the transfer documents were flawed with dates that did not tally.
One dubitable document was made by Florida Default Law Group of Tampa. Its name is included in the four law firms under the cloud of investigation for "fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases" as alleged by the office of Attorney General of Florida.