TAUNTON, Mass. (WPRI) — Nearly three months after their daughter choked on a marshmallow at a birthday party and died, the parents of 11-year-old Azriel Estabrooks are suing the hosts of the party.
According to the lawsuit, Estabrooks’ parents are seeking unspecified monetary damages for the death and suffering of their daughter.
The lawsuit was filed in Bristol County Superior Court in Taunton on Monday. Court documents say the hosts, “failed to, in advance of the party, carefully review food choices to assure that nothing dangerous would be available to the young children, specifically, but not limited to, marshmallows.”
The lawsuit also accuses the hosts of taking too long to call 911 when they realized there was a problem. MORE
I am sorry for their loss, but are they sueing a friend?
Maybe they just ruin children parties for all kids.
Obviously they were probably okay with everything until a lawyer got hold of them. Now it’s pull out all the stops and get rich time (mainly for the lawyer)
Suing won’t bring her back and the party giving family, I’m sure is just as traumatized.
A counter suit needs to be brought against the parents of the deceased girl for not teaching their daughter how not to inhale her food.
What a fucked up world we live in.
You know they used to have a term for these things..
An act of God.
Nobody was at fault. The poor girl died.
Let it go at that.
This suit accomplishes nothing but spreading the grief around, and making the Lawyers rich
That damned National Marshmallow Association is responsible for this!
It must have been one of those ASSAULT marshmallows. You know, the ones with the camo pattern on the outside.
There should be a national registry and an instant check system to ensure anyone who buys a bag has a large enough trachea to enhale a dozen at a time.
And they must be locked up at all times.
And impregated with taggants so they can be traced to the source.
Clearly it is time to outlaw marshmallows and birthday parties.
We have to do it for the children.
This is why we need Frivolous Loser Pays.
“Choose the form of the destructor.”
Baseless case. Possibly carless. No intent.
However they may have a case against the marshmallow company, clearly marshmallows are intended to choke.
I once swallowed a Brach’s butterscotch candy whole and couldn’t breath.
I say counter sue the deceased girls parents for not teaching that little girl how to chew her food properly..
Party throwers had no intent to have the girl choke. Case dismissed.
I sucked in a Brach’s peppermint candy whole and was choking.
My brother held me upside down by my feet and shook.
It came out.
Heimlich was not at all known at that time.
Just curious, but was that the prog brother you never talk to anymore?
(absolutely no political nor nefarious reason involved as I have idiot prog siblings as well, I am simply curious)
Unfortunately sometimes bad things happen and no one is responsible. It isn’t like everyone has heard of cases of kids choking on marshmallows so they recklessly provided them at the party. There is no negligence or intent to hurt the kid. I can’t imagine a sane jury awarding a judgement but stranger things have happened. The family suing should be careful, with lawsuits like this they may end up losing and on the hook for legal expenses. That is what just recently happened to families and victims that sued the theatre and lost in the James Holmes civil suit. Now the theatre is pursuing getting legal fees reimbursed from them.
yes it was..
“My brother held me upside down by my feet and shook.”
My little brother went through a similar experience. The concusion of his head hitting the ground eventually shook it loose. I kept it up for another 15 minutes just to be sure.
Interesting BFH. My Brach’s encounter was at a friend’s birthday party sleepover sometime around 1978. It was the next morning, I laughed and it was lodged. Buddy’s brother slapped my back and it shot out.
I find it hard to believe not everybody is aware of how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. In the past 30+ years I’ve had to do it at least 7 or 8 times…once on myself!
Lazlo had to do the Heimlich one time.
This guy had a beer bottle cap lodged in his throat
I damn near Heimliched him to death, that damned thing would not come out.
To my dying day I will remember the clanking sound as the bottle cap bounced off the pool table light.
He bought me shots for hours afterwards.
Lazlo, How the hell did, ahh never mind.
Ozero doesn’t do the Heimlich, he does the hiney-lick.
I jumped out of a moving swing I was swinging in once. I landed on my back and knocked the wind out of me. I thought I’d never breathe again. I don’t know how I did.
Anyway, poor girl.
My second Manderin ate a small Kit-Kat and left the wrapper on the floor which I did not see when I was on the floor with my baby Manderin. I picked her up not knowing she had put it in her mouth. She looked a little comatosed as I sat her in her high chair. She was having trouble breathing and the kitchen light reflected off the silver wrapping in her mouth. I quickly inserted my index finger in her tiny mouth and somehow dragged that wrapper which had perfectly arced itself in the back of her mouth out. Poor kid started wailing. Scared me to the core. The second Manderin has not left any candy wrappers on the floor since.
I used to make my ex wife choke all the time…
@Bad_Brad: You never saw a drunk open a beer bottle with his teeth?
🙂