Florida Hotel Party Ends In Five Teens Dead From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Where's the Law Here?

Five families will never experience Christmas the same again after the tragedy they've just experienced as Jonas Antenor, 18; Evans Charles, 19; Jean Pierre Ferdinand, 16; Juchen Martial, 19; and Peterson Nazon, 17 all died from inhaling toxic carbon monoxide fumes during a day-after-Christmas birthday bash for Juchen Martial at a local Miami hotel room.

What happened? Sunday, December 26, 2010, the five boys rented a room at the Hotel Presidente on 1395 S.E. Eighth for the birthday party and got there in a car borrowed from a pal. They had had some battery trouble with the car, so the kids thought the best thing to do apparently was to leave the Kia Optima running. Problem was that they left the car idling inside the garage below their room and with the hotel room door being left slightly ajar, those exhaust fumes quietly manuevered into where the boys were. They rented the room around nine o'clock Sunday night, and the maid discovered all five boys dead the next afternoon around two, when she went to clean the room.

Where's the law lesson?

No one is suggesting that there was foul play here. This is, by all accounts, a tragic accident. Teenage hijinks gone terribly wrong. Miami is a party town -- lots of teens have hotel room parties, and lots of parents here and all over the country allow it, perhaps appreciate that the noise isn't in the local neighborhood and that there's maid service cleaning up the aftermath instead of mom and dad.

However, here there is a hotel involved which brings up the reality that the law puts additional duties on those who are in the hotelry business. It's called premises liabilty and there's even a big business in providing insurance coverage to hotels for their special legal duties to their clientele.

There's also the car here. Reports are that it was a Kia Optima. Federal and state laws also impose special legal responsiblities upon car manufacturers in the area of products liability, and if the car was defective in some way and that defect can be shown to be the proximate cause of an injury, the law will hold the car maker accountable.

Which is not to report that either the hotel or the car involved in this tragedy is responsible for the deaths of these teens. The reality is, however, American law does immediately come into play when something unforeseen like this occurs - the wrongful death of another - and while it may seem somewhat callous to point to the legal lessons here, it's a reality of the situation.

Any tragic death should be viewed through a legal lens. That's why the laws are there. Sometimes, like this case, it will simply be the fates at work. An accident to be mourned. In other instances, there may be violations of legal duties that reveal the responsibility of others. And it is good these laws exist, because it is through them that justice is served.

By Bryant Esquenazi on December 28, 2010 9:40 PM