Wrongful death suit filed against East Falmouth campsite

PLYMOUTH — The mother of a 4-year-old boy who drowned in 2017 at the Cape Cod Campresort and Cabins in East Falmouth has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the campground, seeking $7.5 million in damages.

Represented by attorneys George Miller and Justin Miller, Brockton resident Maria Ribeiro filed the lawsuit Aug. 21 in Plymouth Superior Court. The plaintiff is seeking a trial by jury, and the final judgment is scheduled for 2023.

The plaintiff is suing Resort Camp Lands International and Cape Cod Camping Club for negligence, wrongful death, conscious pain and suffering and wrongful death with willful, wanton or reckless and/or gross negligence.

“They should have known that there existed a potentially dangerous condition within the confines of the swimming pool which might cause injury or death to children,” according to the complaint.

Cape Cod Campresort and Cabins owner Anthony Newman said Wednesday he did not know anything about the lawsuit and could not comment. Attorneys for the defendants are not yet listed on electronic court documents.

On Aug. 26, 2017, James Ribeiro-Almeida was with his grandmother, also named Maria Ribeiro, at the campground. She took James and his 8-year-old sister to the campground’s pool.

Shortly after arriving at the pool, James was found at the bottom in approximately 4 feet of water, according to the complaint and jury claim.

Rescuers were called to the scene at 12:59 p.m. and told that James was unresponsive in a pool. Before they arrived, bystanders pulled him from the water and began CPR.

Firefighters took over rescue efforts and brought him to Falmouth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. James’ grandmother was also taken to the hospital by an ambulance.

The plaintiff argues there were no camp personnel monitoring the pool or supervising the children. No lifeguards were on duty at the time of the drowning, and there were no security cameras in operation at the pool area, according to the complaint.

At the time, the campground’s rules permitted children to use the pool without adult supervision, merely stating children “should” be supervised, according to the complaint and jury claim.

Also, the pool rules were displayed only in English, the complaint states, despite the defendants’ knowledge that many of their campers could not speak or read English.

The complaint also alleges the campground did not have proper life-saving and resuscitation equipment on site, and as a result staff were unable to administer life-saving measures on the boy. It argues that campground staff failed to perform CPR or take any life-saving measures on the boy, “relying on campers to attempt to save the decedent’s life.”

The plaintiff is seeking a trial by jury and $7.5 million in damages, with $1,349.30 of that for hospital expenses.

Multiple violations were found at the pool after the incident. But David Carignan, the town’s former health agent, told the Falmouth Board of Health at the time nothing was found in the inspection that would have caused the child’s death.

As a result, the Board of Health approved stricter pool rules.

At the time of the drowning, Newman said one adult was overseeing about nine children. The adult was 69-years-old and did not know how to swim, he said. In 2018, the board added the requirement that a responsible adult may supervise no more than five children at a pool, he said.

“We had no idea one person was in there with nine or 10 children on that day,” Newman said told the Times in 2017. “If we had known, we would have gone right there.”