Family of Myrtle Beach drowning victim seeking $8M+ from lifeguard company

A wrongful death suit filed by the fiance of a Maryland man who drowned in Myrtle Beach while vacationing in 2018 has gone to a jury.

Lack’s Beach Service is being sued by Mesawet Abel, whose would-be husband and father of her four children, 41-year-old Zerihun Wolde, was pulled underwater after being caught up in a riptide on Aug. 24, 2018.

Abel and her attorneys say the company — which holds a franchise agreement with the city allowing it to rent equipment to visitors while also providing lifeguards— didn’t provide its workers with appropriate training.

They also allege that their dual roles of handling rental equipment while also having to watch the water made Lack’s Beach Service culpable for Wolde’s death.

“The evidence in this case is overwhelming. The scales of justice are tipped to the floor,” Abel’s lawyer, Mullins McLeod, said during closing arguments on Friday.

He asked the jury to award Abel and her children $8 million in overall damages.

“It is fundamental that when you accept an enormous privilege like this for-profit was given, you have to fulfill your responsibility,” McLeod said. This was not a simple mistake. This was foreseeable and this was by design.”

Lack’s Beach Service, which inked its contract with the city just four months before Wolde’s death, holds a franchise agreement with the city through 2025.

Joseph Thompson, a lawyer for Lack’s Beach Service, said Wolde and his family ignored obvious warning signs the afternoon of his death, including large red flags posted near lifeguard stands alerting swimmers to dangerous conditions.

“They want you to award $8.1 million against Lack’s Beach Service, and they haven’t brought you any evidence that Lack’s Beach Service could have done anything to stop this,” Thompson said. “If you can’t change the outcome, there can’t be any liability.”

Jury deliberations are expected to continue through Friday afternoon.