Mother of drowned girl sues condo owners
By Brandon Ortiz
bortiz@herald-leader.com
The mother of a 14-year-old girl who died of a brain injury after she was trapped in a pool has sued the Lexington condominium complex that owns the pool.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Fayette Circuit Court, is against Aintree Condominiums Inc., located at 421 Redding Road. The suit was brought by Lisa Ann Scott, the mother of Kiah Milsom.
Kiah, who had trespassed with friends, was swimming at the bottom of the pool at 4 a.m. July 20 when her arm was sucked into the drain, police said. She was submerged for about 20 minutes.
She was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital, where she died five days later from a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of the condominium complex knew or should have known the drainage pump was dangerous. They also knew or should have known that children might swim in the pool unauthorized, the suit says.
The suit states the drain cover was not properly in place, as required by law.
Lexington lawyer Robert Houlihan Jr., who filed the lawsuit, said Kentucky law requires that pool drainage covers be firmly affixed with screws so they can only be removed with tools. According to public records, not only was the drainage cover missing, it was not capable of being screwed in, he said.
Houlihan said the drainage pumps are capable of creating tremendous pressure.
The complex’s management could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
Houlihan said the pool was fenced in, and that the fence was locked. He did not know how the children got into the pool.
Reach Brandon Ortiz at (859) 231-1443 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 1443.
On the beat in the Bluegrass 
August 22, 2008 at 6:54 pm
It’s a sad thing when a parent suffers the loss of a child, I am a mother myself. But we seem to live in a world of ” I’m gonna sue you or the gimmy’s”. Noone, parents/family included wants to take responsibility for their part. Why was the girl out running around late without an adult? Why did she go into an area that she is plenty old enough to know better than to enter? Yes, something in that pool might need to be fixed and its sad that it took this to find that out. But people need to start taking responsibility for their childrens actions and wonder what they themselves could have done to prevent this. Be a little more attune to where and what your child is doing and who they are with? Sounds like a good idea.
August 22, 2008 at 8:06 pm
The mother should have known where her underage child was at four A.M.
August 22, 2008 at 9:12 pm
We can not always control our children. But we should always take responsibility for them. The property was secured by Aintree. The property was breached by the unsupervised child. The Mother is greiving and not able to have rational thought. No amount of money is going to replace her child. How much is Mr. Houlihan going to “earn” from the unfortunate death of this child? Seems as though he is the only one that will “feel better” at the end of the day.
August 22, 2008 at 11:00 pm
This is such a pathetic joke that it makes me ill. I hope this case gets thrown out of court. At least when it’s all over, the mother should have to pay the legal fees of the defendant.
August 23, 2008 at 4:44 am
This is a horrible thing. However I do feel that the mother should be charged with neglect of a minor for allowing the child to be out at that time. She is required to know where her daughter is at all times.
August 23, 2008 at 7:25 am
Too many lawyers.
August 23, 2008 at 9:58 am
Yes, it is unfortunate and sad that this young girl lost her life and my heart goes out to the mother in her grief, however, Aintree should not be sued for this drowning. They had all the legal requirements for pools in place, the gate was locked. Why is this drowning Aintree’s fault? I believe the mother should have kept herself present at the slumber party and not gone to bed knowing she had 14 years olds on her hands and would try anything once the mother trustingly went to bed, leaving these girls more or less to their own mischief. I would not be surprised that the mother knew that the daughter had done this before. From the report in the paper it appeared the mother was not upset she was swimming in the pool, but that, this time all went wrong. Perhaps mom and daughter have gone to the pool after hours to swim together. How would this daughter have known to do this if it hadn’t been shown to her?
I hope Aintree is exonerated in this matter, it is not their fault. The mother is at fault and needs, through her grief to take the painful responsibility for her daughter’s tragic death. The lawyer, who seems to be an ambulance chaser ought to save face and cancel the suit. Just another typical example of frivolous lawsuits, always trying to put the blame on someone else that is innocent in the matter.
August 23, 2008 at 11:00 am
The child trespassed (broke the law) to gain entry into the pool?? Sounds like the mom
just want to get rich and not have to work at the expense of her daughters death.
Trying being a better parent not feeding the lawyers and driving up working peoples
insurance and apt. rental rates.
August 23, 2008 at 12:15 pm
the company put up a fence. they had a lock on the gate. the only thing they did wrong was not realize was that there was someone that was so irresponsible that they did not know where there child was at 4:00am. give the mom millions lol.
August 23, 2008 at 12:56 pm
This is just another case of putting a dollar amount on someone’s life, by her own mother no less.
Why not sue GM if someone gets into a fatal accident while driving drunk in one of their cars? The pool nor the apartment complex is responsible for this girls death in a sane world. Fact of the matter is that the responsibility falls on the girl and her parents.
I would eat my own words if the mother were to take all the money from a possible lawsuit victory and put it towards making all pools safer, with electric fences, laser alarms, and armed guards. I’d bet anything that won’t happen. Instead what we’ll see is someone quit their job, buy a giant house and expensive cars. That will make everything better, won’t it?
August 24, 2008 at 12:01 am
This is pathetic, this women should not only be laughed at for her utter stupidity she should also be charged for neglect. I think any intelligent individual should protest outside this woman’s home until she admits that she failed as a parent and takes responsibility for her daughter’s death.
August 24, 2008 at 12:06 am
I think if this woman wins a settlement I will sue her for her role in raising rental rates in Lexington as the standard for personal responsibility in this country will have been completly killed. Thanks librals!!!
August 24, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Lisa neglected her child? You’re all out of your GD minds. I knew the victim, and her family, very well. Kiah was at a friend’s house, so explain to me how it’s possible for Lisa to have known what was going on. Children spend the night with friends all the time, so how is she to blame for allowing her daughter to do something so innocent? If anyone is to blame, it’s the mother of the friend who Kiah was with, which still wouldn’t be right. You’ve all been teenagers, you know that the majority of them sneak out atleast once during their years as a teen. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, this horrible event just happened to take place one of those times. I realize that money isn’t going to bring Kiah back, but the article states that the apartment complex did not have a cover that fit properly covering the drain. This could have happened day or night, to anyone, and it would have been equally as difficult to remove some other child from the drain. You’re not the one who has been faced with losing your 14-year old daughter. Imagine how it would feel, and then perhaps you should consider how you would react. You all make me sick.
August 24, 2008 at 9:29 pm
To, “I can’t believe you idiots,” I have a teenage daughter that hasn’t, to the best of my knowledge, engaged in self-destructive bahavior. Also, I didn’t engage in that behavior when I was a teenager. Regardless of whether the cover was there or not, the fact remains that the girl was where she wasn’t supposed to be, and that she went to extraordinary measures (negotiating a fence bypassing a locked gate) to gain access to the pool. Would she have drowned had the cover been in place? Well, that depends on how good a swimmer she was; but, bottom line, she took a risk by violating trespass laws and it cost her life. While I don’t agree with the others comments about raising the rental rates and insurance costs, the lawsuit should be dismissed because the injury (death) occurred while in the act of committing a crime.
August 26, 2008 at 8:06 pm
The fact is that this was a very tragic accident. The condo should not be held responsible because the child was well over age to know that she was not suppose to be in the pool. Perhaps the private pool owners should put electric fences with razor wire in them to prevent people from breaking into their pools. People should take responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming it on everyone else.
Here’s another thought……Make it a law that the lawyers spearheading these frivolous lawsuits can not get a portion of the settlement that usually comes from them. Make them work for free or an hourly wage (that has to be paid by the defendant) and see how many of them want to push them all of a sudden.
August 27, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Because we are talking about a LAWsuit, maybe we should stick to legalities instead of making assumptions about this girl and her family. How can any of you say such awful things about people you don’t even know? How nice for most of you that you have such well behaved children and how fortunate none of you would have done anything so stupid when you were growing up.
Legally, the Condominium complex should be held responsible. There should have been a cover on the suction drain and it should have been screwed in with non-corrosive screws. The suction in these drains is very strong and many people, mostly children have been injured and killed by these uncovered drains. In some cases, children have literally had there intestines sucked from their bodies.
This information has been around for at least 15 years, and is well known. So well known, it is a law that pool drain pumps must be covered.
This Condominium is legally responsible for some portion of this accident, if not all. This same incident could have happened at 4p.m. to another child, in this same pool.
Who would be responsible then?
Money. No it won’t bring her daughter back, but it will send a huge message to other apartment/condo complexes. That’s the primary reason for these lawsuits
I’m sure the hospital did not waive their expenses because the girl died, I’ll bet the mother has huge medical bills. That money could help her pay them.
Please be kind. God forbid any of you should lose a precious child, no matter how it happens and no matter who is responsible. There is plenty of blame to go around in this world.