A 12-year-old girl died after falling from a third-story window at a Massachusetts apartment during a sleepover with friends, news outlets reported.
Arya Lebeau died a day after the incident on May 24, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.
“I cannot express the amount of grief I feel at the loss of my only baby,” the child’s mother, Charlene Cabrera, said in a statement on a public GoFundMe page.
Cabrera alleged that police told her no parents were at the apartment at the time of her daughter’s fall and that there was a dispute among the children.
This was not the first time that the girl had stayed over at this apartment, Jeremy Lebeau, the girl’s father, told the media in an interview.
“Part of her summer list was to have sleepovers, which is what she was doing,” he said. “She was the greatest child I could have in my life. I miss her. I just want closure — no matter what, I just want closure, I want answers.”
Police are investigating this horrific incident, and an autopsy will be performed to determine Arya’s cause of death.
Details about this case are still being released, however, for Leesfield & Partners the headline brings up memories of a similar case on a cruise ship that was handled by the firm.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a law firm with a 48-year track record of securing record and leading verdicts and settlements for injured clients and their family members. The personal injury law firm handles every manner of injury from premises liability, medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, boating and water-related injuries, and cruise ship cases. Leesfield & Partners attorneys actively pursue the maximum recoverable amount for clients in every case.
Tragically, Leesfield & Partners has handled a case that is similar to this recent incident involving another child’s fatal fall. In that case, the firm represented the family of an 8-year-old girl who was separated from her parents while traveling on a cruise ship. When the child leaned over the faulty interior railing on the ship, she fell five stories to her death.
Leesfield & Partners secured a confidential settlement in that case for the grieving family.
Previous Premises Liability Cases
In a different balcony fall handled by Leesfield & Partners, a $7 million settlement for a client who was left with sever injuries after visiting a friend’s apartment. This settlement amount is $6 million over the apartment complex’s $1 million policy limit. In that case, numerous tenants had made their landlord formally aware of issues with the building’s unsafe balconies and faulty railings.
Despite these complaints, the property owner did nothing to address the issue and failed to have a licensed contractor inspect the balconies and railings. No repairs were made. As a result, our client fell from the second-story balcony and landed on the concrete floor below, causing him to be paralyzed from the shins down.
A different fall case that occurred at a home in Florida resulted in an over $5 million recovery after our client sustained severe injuries that caused paralysis.
In a cruise ship case, the firm represented a family and their 9-year-old son after he was severely injured on board the ship. The boy was playing basketball when he dove for an out-of-bounds ball and hit his head on a steel, unpadded grommet. He sustained a catastrophic brain injury as a result.
A $2.5 million recovery was secured for the boy in that case.
When our client fell at a building and suffered a concussion due to management’s negligence, our attorneys recovered over $1.4 million amount.
In a premises liability case out of Key West, Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured over $1.4 million for an Iowa family who was exposed to carbon monoxide while staying at a hotel. In that case, a damaged roof vent was ventilating the lethal gas into the family’s room. Luckily, they were able to call for help before passing out from breathing in the gas. Carbon monoxide is incredibly dangerous because it is colorless and odorless, making it nearly impossible to detect before it is too late.
This case garnered nationwide attention and led to Ira Leesfield, the Founder and Managing Partner of Leesfield & Partners, championing statewide carbon monoxide legislation.
The firm secured a $1 million recovery amount for a family whose loved one died in a wrongful death case due to the negligence of a treatment facility in Florida.
For a client who suffered a severe fall at a hotel, the firm obtained a $ 1 million recovery amount.
Representing Children
Leesfield & Partners has also represented numerous children who were injured in negligent supervision cases throughout its 48 years in practice.
One such case involves a minor whose leg had to be amputated due to an injury sustained in a boating accident. The children in that case were not being supervised by the adults into whose care they were entrusted at the time of the injury.
The firm secured a substantial amount for the child in that case.
A confidential amount was recovered by Leesfield & Partners for a family who entrusted their child to a mental health facility where he was not being supervised and later died by suicide.
Another child who was tragically failed includes a young girl who was flying with an airline as an unaccompanied minor. As such, this child was meant to be under the supervision and care of flight attendants while in the air. However, during the flight, another passenger sexually abused this child.
A confidential amount was secured for the girl in this case.