JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The family of an 85-year-old Jacksonville man who drowned in a retention pond at his Westside senior living apartment complex has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office found James Holloway Sr. dead in March after he disappeared from his home at the Marcis Pointe Apartments.
Holloway’s family is now suing the owners of the senior living community. The lawsuit alleges the complex’s failure to properly secure and maintain the retention pond led to his death.
Speaking alongside attorneys from The Haggard Law Firm and Edwards Law, Holloway’s daughter, Latonya Stewart, said her family hopes the lawsuit leads to changes that prevent another drowning.
“Anybody can walk out and slip in one of those ponds,” Stewart said. “I hope it’s the last. So, I hope something can be done about it.”
The lawsuit alleges that the retention pond was not properly maintained and did not have adequate measures in place to restrict access to the water. It also claims the pond’s slope did not comply with requirements and alleges failures involving inspections, monitoring, warnings, employee training, vegetation maintenance and lighting.
The attorneys also pointed to the property being marketed exclusively to seniors, arguing the complex had a responsibility to account for foreseeable dangers involving its elderly residents.
“The chain of events continues to be the same and continues to be predictable,” attorney Adam Finkle said. “An apartment complex with a retention pond absolutely ignores their legal duties for how to maintain that man-made body of water, that retention pond falls into dangerous disrepair, and an absolutely foreseeable and preventable death happens.”
The allegations have not yet been proven in court.
The lawsuit comes weeks after two autistic children drowned in separate Jacksonville retention ponds, and one day after the launch of a Jacksonville City Council committee focused on drowning prevention.
Holloway’s attorneys are also calling on lawmakers to require fencing around retention ponds in residential communities.
“The time is now,” Finkle said. “These ponds in residential communities must be treated like those pools, and fences must be erected from the outset. The cost of building one of these fences is far less than the cost of a human life.”
Stewart said her father regularly encouraged his family to continue a prayer line they hold every Monday and Thursday night. Now, she wants his death to bring attention to the dangers retention ponds can pose.
“Yes, my dad was 85 years old, but he did not deserve to die the way he did, at the bottom of a pond,” Stewart said.
Both defendants listed in the lawsuit were contacted for comment, but neither had responded.
The lawsuit seeks damages exceeding $50,000, the minimum threshold stated for the case in Florida circuit court.
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