FAMILY SUES RETIREMENT HOME AFTER MOTHER KILLED IN ALLIGATOR ATTACK

New York law allows the survivors of a loved one killed as a result of negligence to file what’s commonly known as a “wrongful death” lawsuit.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed this week in Florida alleges facts and negligence likely never seen before in any courthouse. 

The family of 85-year old Gloria Serge sued the Spanish Lakes Fairways retirement community in Fort Pierce, Florida, where the woman drowned after being dragged into a lake by a 10-foot alligator.  The victim was walking her dog along the lake when the alligator emerged from the water, grabbed her by the left foot, and pulled her into the lake. 

The family’s lawyers alleged that the property manager was aware that alligators lived in the lakes at the development, and that Spanish Lakes maintenance employees routinely fed the reptile chicken scraps. The lawsuit also contends that residents of the retirement community were never warned to stay away from the lake and alligator, and were actually encouraged to sit near the water in benches that were positioned near the shoreline of the water.