A Florida mother whose son wandered away from a Marriott hotel and drowned in a retention pond just outside Walt Disney World has brazenly filed a wrongful death suit against the hotel and its management.
Tarina Akbari is seeking more than $50,000 in damages from Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, Vistana Management Inc, Vistana Development Inc and Vistana Spa Condominium Association Inc. before the death of her son Rakim on July 18.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office officials said at the time that the three-year-old autistic boy wandered away from the Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas, and officers found his body a few hours later in a retention pond on the resort grounds.
But Tarina now claims the hotel allowed “hazardous conditions” to persist at the Orlando property “increasing the risk of drowning to children.”
“Defendant owed (Rakim) a duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining its retention ponds in a reasonably safe condition for the safety of all persons lawfully on the premises,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday by Haggard Law Firm and Ben Crump on behalf of Akbari states: according to Law & Crime.
“Defendant breached his non-delegable duty to maintain these premises in a reasonably safe condition,” she continued, alleging that the “hazardous conditions existed for a sufficient period of time that a reasonable person and/or company, its agents, servants and/or employees knew or should have discovered and corrected.’
Tarina Akbari, the mother of three-year-old Rakim Akbari, has brazenly filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Marriott hotel and its management
Orange County sheriff’s officials said Rakim ran away from the Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas and officers found his body a few hours later in a retention pond on the resort grounds.
Akbari’s attorneys further claim that the retention pond was “only partially secured” and had a “dangerous side slope, increasing the risk of drowning to children on the property.”
They allege that the resort companies failed to follow “mandatory regulations” regarding maintenance of the retention pond, including local water management district regulations and the Florida Administrative Code.
Resort officials are further accused of failing to maintain the retention pond “in accordance with the minimum design specifications submitted to and approved by the management district.”
The lawsuit also calls out the resort’s management for “failing to actively monitor the retention pond” and “failing to warn residents and guests that the retention pond dangerously failed to comply with mandatory safety regulations,” Law & Crime reports.
“Defendant, his agents, servants and/or employees negligently and negligently failed to have procedures in place for the maintenance, inspection and supervision of the area where the present accident occurred,” the lawsuit states.
“As a direct and proximate result of the defendant’s negligence, (Rakim Akbari) suffered serious bodily injury, which resulted in his death.”
Akbari claims in her lawsuit that the hotel and its management failed to maintain the retention pond and allowed “dangerous conditions” to persist
Tarina is now seeking damages for “past and future mental pain and suffering,” past and future loss of Rakim’s “support and services” from the date of his death to his “legal next of kin,” the cost of his funeral arrangements, the loss of his ‘legal next of kin’. future net accumulations and losses of inherited assets.
In one statement to Click Orlando, a spokesperson for Marriott Vacations Worldwide said it could not comment on active litigation.
But the spokesman said: ‘We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and extend our sincere condolences.’
DailyMail.com has also contacted the law firm representing the resort and its management for comment.