Pennsylvania widow files $20M suit against town of Ocean City
BARBARA GRZINCIC The Daily Record Newswire
(July 3, 2009) A woman who lost her husband and daughter to carbon monoxide poisoning at an Ocean City hotel has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the town's Fire/EMS Division for failing to come to their aid for more than four hours.
Yvonne Boughter, who settled another lawsuit against the hotel operator in late March, filed the new action in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Friday — one day before the third anniversary of the deaths.
According to the complaint, the Boughters, of Lebanon, Pa., were staying at the Days Inn Hotel on the Boardwalk when they fell ill. Yvonne Boughter placed a 911 call from her cell phone around 9:43 a.m. on June 27, 2006, and told the dispatcher her family had been ill all night, her husband was having trouble breathing, speaking and vomiting, and her daughter was vomiting.
She gave the dispatcher her room number and confirmed it later in the conversation, and also provided her cell phone number before lapsing back into unconsciousness, the suit says.
She came to a little before 2 p.m. and called 911 again.
"Yeah … um … I called you earlier and nobody came yet," she told the dispatcher, according to the complaint. "My husband has passed away, my daughter looks like she passed away also. She's mottled and cold to the touch."
The EMS team arrived about 2:02 p.m., and found Patrick J. Boughter, 40, and Kelly M. Boughter, 10, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Boughters' younger daughter, Morgan, survived.
Ocean City emergency officials found no wrongdoing by the EMS responders, who may have confused Boughter's first call with that of another family staying in adjacent rooms.
In addition to the town of Ocean City, the lawsuit names Brooks Morris of Delmar and Bryon Trimble of Berlin, Md., as defendants.
Morris and Trimble are allegedly the EMS employees who were dispatched when Yvonne Boughter called 911 the first time, who never went to the Boughters' room.
Boughter seeks actual and punitive damages on behalf of herself and her husband's and daughter's estates.
They are represented by Steven A. Allen of Hodes, Pessin & Katz in Towson and Dean F. Piermattei of Rhoads & Simon in Harrisburg, Pa.
City Solicitor Guy R. Ayres III did not return a call for comment.
