Lawsuit: Defective gate led to 4-year-old’s Fourth of July drowning death in Horry Co.
The parent of a 4-year-old who drowned on the Fourth of July blames a defective gate as the reason her daughter accessed the pool area and fell into the water, a wrongful death lawsuit states.
Bailey Stimatze, the mother of 4-year-old Kendall Stimatze-Marez, filed the lawsuit Friday in Horry County against defendants Myrtle Beach Premier Properties, LLC, Empire Property Management, LLC, Roy F. Claus and Sharon Hale Claus.
The grandparents of the victim signed a two-year rental agreement that started July 1, 2018, to stay in a single-family home in Galivants Ferry, where they lived with the child and Stimatze, the suit states.
During a family gathering on July 4, 2018, the child gained access to the swimming pool by using a wooden gate on the rear deck, according to the lawsuit. The latch was defective and did not meet building code requirements for residential swimming pools, resulting in the child gaining access to the area and falling into the water, the lawsuit states.
The pool is partially surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, with the rear of the home and a shed serving as partial barriers around the pool, the suit states. A deck at the rear of the residence also serves as a barrier surrounding the pool with a wooden gate and latch that is not self-closing or self-latching, the lawsuit claims.
The 4-year-old was transported to the hospital where she later died, according to the lawsuit.
The suit claims the defendants were negligent in ways including failing to properly maintain the pool, adhere to code requirements and correct a “known defect.”
A spokesperson with Myrtle Beach Premier Properties, LLC, said the company had no comment. Other defendants named in the lawsuit could not be reached.
This story was originally published June 3, 2019 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Lawsuit: Defective gate led to 4-year-old’s Fourth of July drowning death in Horry Co.."
