SEATTLEPI.COM:
Claiming the window through which her toddler fell was wrongly designed, the mother of a 2-year-old boy who fell to his death in July 2008 has filed suit against the apartment building’s owner.
The child, Honor Cornell Callandret, had been living at the Dakota at Rainier Court apartments for just more than a year when he tumbled through a fourth-story window on July 15, 2008, according to court documents. The child suffered fatal injuries in the fall and died later that day.
In filings with King County Superior Court earlier in September, the child’s mother and guardian claim flaws in the window’s design caused the deadly fall. Read more.
Little Honor Callendert died last year after falling from his seventh-floor home onto the cement courtyard, which is on the third floor of the Dakota Apartments in Mount Baker.
Related:
- Dakota Apartments Where Toddler Died NOT Designed for Safety of Young Children, Despite Being Marketed to Families With Kids (7/20/08)
- Mount Baker Toddler Dies After Falling From 7-Story Window (7/16/08)
Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!
{ 15 comments }
did you read the horrible comments on the PI’s forum? You know, I have never seen a nastier group of folks than the ones that post on the PI’s forums. What is up with that?
When my child was small, we installed simple and inexpensive grates on our upstairs’ windows. I can’t believe that landlords cannot be made to so the same for families with small children. It’s just NOT that expensive and the grates can be easily removed for tenants who do not need the barriers. The saddest part of this tragedy is that it was preventable.
Why would it be the landlord’s responsibility to childproof a home? I never thought of having my landlord do it, I did it myself. Everyone I knew with children did it themselves.
But that’s beside the point. The mother is not alleging landlord neglect (it’s reasonable to think that if she could do so she would). She’s alleging a defective window There’s not enough information in the story even to determine if the suit is alleging a design defect or a manufacturing defect. If it’s the former though, the suit will probably be dismissed out of hand.
@mimi_t_b
Yes I did, Those forums are full of a bunch of keyboard warriors that do not think twice about sounding like an A#*hole, remember the March for Youth story?
The Warriors are rampant on the PI, the Seattle Times, the Weekly, the Stranger; and on the RVP.
Kid is dead. Mother is devistated.
My sister fell out of a two story window onto some metal swingset bars when she was a couple of years old. She was fine, but my mom was devistated.
My mom wasn’t a bad parent. It could happen to any one of you.
Intiendo? It could happen to ANY ONE OF YOU.
Pero, mom didn’t try to sue anyone.
That may be the dividing line.
Isn’t that entiendo? Yes, it could happen to anyone of you. It happened to Eric Clapton didn’t it…? I don’t think anyone said the landlord was supposed to childproof the apartment…. where’d that come from? You could lose a child too, whether from falling out a window, getting shot in the street, or run over on Rainier or by the “light” rail…. today, tomorrow, or any time…. bad things happen to all kinds of people
“Bien” has spelling issues late at night.
Denise I appreciate the point you are making. I have two kids. They are young. I consider myself a good parent, and as such- Paranoid is my middle name. My son could be NEAR (mere proximity would suffice) an uncovered outlet two states away, and the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. And if he LOOKED at the outlet? Well-full on anaphylaxis for me. yippee.
But I go to bed every night wiping the sweat off my brow, in relief that they remain alive. Short of a permanent umbilical, or performing an elective lobotomy (on them or me, not sure which would help more) I can’t see how raising children isn’t sometimes a terrifyingly constant “close call” kind of existence. If you’re not scared, you’re not watching. Or you’ve locked them up in a padded cell (considering this strategy myself, aside from the obvious want for “socialization” opportunities…)
Do you remember Road Runner? You know how he’d be standing there, right in front of Coyote? And just as Coyote reached out to put a paw on him, RR’s feet would turn into a dusty tornado and he’d take off…0-60 in a demonstration of warp responsiveness that would impress Geordi La Forge himself. That’s like my son-except he’s faster, and he cackles when he does it (as opposed to the “Meep-Meep”)
So when something happens to someone else’s child, we have to compartmentalize in order to prevent ourselves from stroking out on the spot. We commit the classic attribution error, and generalize some sort of fictitious deficiency, from our perception of the situation. This relieves us from having to allow to the surface of our overstressed, under-examined minds that dark, uncomfortable feeling that this or something else **bad** could have happened to our own.
I’m not much for litigating every crack in the sidewalk. Although that hammer is necessary sometimes, to raise a bar here or there. But we shouldn’t confuse someone’s misfortune with someone’s fault. Sh*t happens, and it’s not okay to be mean about it. I don’t read the PI or Times comment sections anymore. It makes me afraid to look people in the eyes. Is that really what we turn into when we’re veiled in anonymity?
Losing a kid isn’t something most of us can relate to. And sometimes you just don’t know someone’s pain until you’ve had it. Since I remain happily ignorant in this regard, I’ll suspend my judgment of their reaction.
ahow, what a fine, thoughtful post.
Yea, ahow, a fine and thoughtful post. Thanks for clarifying on the spelling issue. It is important that people realize these terrible things that happen, can happen to them too. As Bien stated, I simply reinforced. People often judge the mom or in some cases, the parents. And if anything happens to your children, someone will be sitting somewhere wondering if you were doing your job right too…. I hope you didn’t think I was judging anyone because I was only reinforcing what Bien had said.
The dead kids moms club doesn’t need or want anymore members — we don’t need your understanding that badly. I think if you try to identify with those of us that have or relate, as you say, then perhaps it will help you stay vigilent in your efforts to care for your children so that you are not as likely to have no choice in becoming a member of this club.
I don’t read the big papers either. And I think it makes sense that this mother pursues the court system to ensure that other children living in the same building do not die as Honor did, regardless of what Honor’s mother was doing.
“I hope you didn’t think I was judging anyone because I was only reinforcing what Bien had said. ”
OMG Denise, NOT AT ALL!
Now I feel like an insensitive a** for making you think that. I didn’t want to say what you’re sayin’ about “membership”, and who is in and who is out. Because that wasn’t my business to disclose. But I was feelin’ what you said: “bad things happen to all kinds of people.” And you said that from your vantage point, which is amongst the wisest in this discussion.
No problem, all clear here; you are not insensitive and I can be too sensitive, but let’s be very upfront on the club — we would like to reduce our numbers not increase them or if that’s not possible lets say decrease the rate of increase of new members to the dead kids moms club.
Denise,
Thank you for relieving me from my moment of PCSD. (post catholic stress disorder)
The links at the bottom of this story may refresh people’s memories. First, the mom went to the bathroom and her toddler fell out of the window. Second, the mom and several other tenants had tried to address the issue of window safety and the management seemed to be unresponsive.
Also, I remember when the units were being advertised and they were promoting them as family friendly housing. Turns out the building is not built for young children and doesn’t have some of the built in safety precautions that would come with a high rise that is BRAND NEW and marketed as FAMILY HOUSING.
I support this mother’s efforts in holding the people who profit from their tenants accountable to a reasonable standard.
Mimi_t_b
Yes, I know! I couldn’t believe the heartlessness of the comments in the PI–especially when the article didn’t even reveal all the facts.
When I was in college, I lived in a one story house with another female roommate. One day I got a call from my landlord, and he said, “Hey, there’s apparently a gang of pukes going around breaking into houses. I’m going to come over today and install window guards so you girls are safe.” I was still suffering from adolescent invincibility and thought him a bit paranoid at the time, but now I’m able to see the conscientiousness of that behavior?
I’m not placing blame. I’m just stating that this can be seen from several standpoints. I don’t know if the landlord was negligent or if the window was faulty or if the mother was negligent. All I know is that a baby died tragically and I can’t imagine the mother’s grief.
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