Elsie died in 2016 after being found hanging from a blind’s cord
The parents of a three-year-old Utah girl who died after getting tangled in a cord while playing with a friend are suing multiple window blind companies, court documents show.
Former BYU football star Reno Mahe and his wife Sunny filed a lawsuit on Thursday against window installers, distributors and marketers on behalf of their daughter Elsie, who died a week after she was found hanging from a blind’s cord in their Lehi home in 2016.
The parents, who are seeking a jury trial, say they endured extreme emotional harm as well as medical and funeral costs following their daughter’s death, which they blame on malpractice.
They are accusing the companies of product liability, negligence and breach of warranty and are seeking damages to be determined at trial.
But the Mahe’s lawyer Alan Mortensen said the reason they are suing is not to get money, but to raise awareness about the dangers blinds can pose and encourage families to switch to cordless designs.
Reno Mahe and his wife Sunny filed a lawsuit on Thursday against window installers, distributors and marketers on behalf of their daughter Elsie
The parents, who are seeking a jury trial, say they endured extreme emotional harm as well as medical and funeral costs following their daughter’s death, which they blame on malpractice
‘The purpose of the lawsuit is consistent with what they have done with their nonprofit to help grieving parents. It’s to let people know, to lets parents know and grandparents know, that this is a huge hazard,’ Mortensen said, according to the Deseret News.
The parents’ nonprofit foundation, Miracles From Elsie, is dedicated to providing financial assistance to families that care for a child with a life threatening medical issue, grief counseling and organ donation awareness.
The lawsuit claims the window coverings in the Mahe home were ‘unreasonably dangerous and defective’ because they were sold without proper warnings and safety procedures, and that the companies should have known the ‘danger posed by the defective condition of the blinds and its component parts.’
It says the window coverings involved in Elsie’s death could extend to more than seven inches and posed an ‘unreasonable risk of strangulation.’
The Mahe’s lawyer Alan Mortensen said the reason they are suing is not to get money, but to raise awareness about the dangers blinds can pose
Reno was a BYU running back and kick returner and worked as a running backs coach at the school when Elsie died
The Mahes claim the companies ‘failed to use ordinary care in designing, manufacturing, testing, labeling, distributing, supplying and servicing the blinds and its component parts so as to not injure or kill its users’ and did not fix or recall the product even though they knew it was defective.
BlindVision, Century Blinds Inc., Hunter Douglas Inc., Hunter Douglas Fabrication Company, and Turnils North America Inc., are listed as defendants.
Other potential defendants that ‘may be responsible for plaintiff’s injuries and damages whose names and entities are unknown at this time’ are also included in the suit.
Reno was a BYU running back and kick returner and worked as a running backs coach at the school when Elsie died. He also played for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sunny, on her part, once was a BYU volleyball star.
Elsie was the youngest of the couple’s eight children.