ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA – The wife of a New York City firefighter killed by a falling tree on the Biltmore Estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging Biltmore was grossly negligent, having known the tree was “rotten,” the risk it posed, yet did not remove the tree.
Angela Skudin, through her lawyer, Kyle Findley of Houston-based firm Arnold & Itkin, filed the suit July 15 in Buncombe County Superior Court on behalf of herself and her two sons, Ben, 19, and Channing, 10.
The family members were all riding in a car June 17, and had just passed through the archway on the Biltmore Estate when a large limb broke off an American beech tree, smashing through the car’s roof and killing Casey Skudin, seriously injuring Channing and causing minor injuries to Angela and Ben, according to the lawsuit.
Angela Skudin is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, including but not limited to medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and loss of enjoyment of life.
“No one should have to see their best friend and their soulmate perish in front of them. That's going to be a lifetime of trauma. That visualization alone will haunt me forever,” Skudin told the Citizen Times July 19.
The petition is filed against the Biltmore Co., Biltmore Estate Wine Co., LLC and Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate LLC.
The Biltmore Estate, which sits just south of downtown Asheville, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state, receiving about 1.4 million visitors a year.
Before the tree fell and killed Casey Skudin, Biltmore was “well-aware of the extreme dangers posed by the tree to guests and families visiting the Biltmore,” according to the lawsuit.
“In fact, Defendants knowingly and intentionally kept a massive, rotted tree on its property next to a main road where Defendants knew it would cause great harm when it fell. Indeed, in an attempt to keep the rotted tree on its premises for longer than safe or necessary, Defendants installed steel cables to parts of the tree.”
Photos included in the court filing show tree cabling and bracing to the beech tree, which is one of many old trees lining the Biltmore Estate entrance road.
Tree cabling “is a proactive and preventative technique to support a tree with known poor or weak structure. In other words, Defendants previously acknowledged the tree at issue suffered from a compromised and dangerous structure that necessitated tree cabling,” the lawsuit states.
“Despite this knowledge, Defendants decided to install inadequate cables to try and merely keep the tree upright, instead of taking the appropriate measure of cutting the tree down and eliminating the potentially fatal risk.”
The lawsuit goes on to say that the Biltmore Estate exposed its guests to the dangers posed by the rotting and decaying tree, and did not warn anyone of the risks or mitigate the dangerous condition, claiming these decisions “directly and proximately caused Casey Skudin's death and the severe, and likely permanent, physical and non-physical injuries his family will have to live with the rest of their lives.”
The lawsuit further states Biltmore was negligent by failing to employ “competent arborists,” failing to adequately train employees, failing to cut down the decaying, rotting and weak tree, and failing to trim the tree, among other failings
What happened on the estate Casey Skudin was a decorated firefighter from Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. He had been with the Fire Department of New York for more than 16 years and awarded medals for his bravery. He was a history buff, according to his wife of 19 years, and wanted to take his family to see the Biltmore House, built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 on the banks of the French Broad River.
The trip, Angela Skudin said, was planned to celebrate Casey’s 46th birthday on June 19, which was also Father’s Day. He was killed two days before his birthday.
Casey, who was a “chauffeur” or fire engine driver, Angela Skudin said, was driving a minivan the family had rented in New York when they entered the estate for their 4 p.m. house tour reservations.
Angela started filming the scenic drive with her camera phone. In that video shared with the Citizen Times, there was a sudden crashing sound and jerk of the car. Angela asks if everyone is all right, then starts screaming, “Oh my god, Casey!”
The tree crashed through the car’s roof, hitting Casey Skudin directly in the head and breaking his neck. According to an Asheville Fire Department incident report, he maintained a pulse for an hour while AFD crews worked to remove the tree by cutting it with a chainsaw and to remove the doors to try to free Casey Skudin.
Angela Skudin and her children were taken to Mission Hospital. She and her older son suffered minor scratches and bruises. Her 10-year-old suffered a fractured back and sternum and partially collapsed lung.
While working to extricate Skudin from the car, the AFD report states that he “still had a strong radial pulse but was still unresponsive.”
Buncombe County EMS paramedics were standing by to work on Skudin as soon as he could be removed from the minivan, the report said.
“They asked whether effective CPR could be started but, due to the location of the tree and van roof, there was no access for chest compressions. L8 and R3 arrived on scene and assisted 5's crew in extrication attempts. Eventually, the call was made by EMS and command that the (patient) was no longer viable, and extrication attempts changed to recovery mode,” the report said.
Biltmore denies wrongdoing“ A portion of a tree fell during a period of high winds and struck the guest’s vehicle as they entered the estate. There are no words to express our deep sorrow for the Skudin family’s unimaginable loss and we offer them our deepest sympathy,” Kathleen Mosher, Biltmore vice president of communications, said in an email July 19.
“We are preparing our answer to this lawsuit and will not provide further details while in litigation. We strongly deny the allegations of negligence on the part of Biltmore and will present all of the facts about this heartbreaking accident through the legal process.”
Although a storm moved in later in the day on June 17, the National Weather Service said there were no high winds at the time of the tree fall, which was about 3:45 p.m.
The Asheville Fire Department incident report says the temperature was 85 degrees and the winds were 15 mph at the time they arrived at the Biltmore in response to a 911 call.
“This is a tragic event that should have never happened. Had appropriate steps been taken in the past, we believe this event would not have happened,” said Findley, the Skudins’ attorney “As property owners they have a responsibility for the integrity of their trees that line the roadway. Based on initial review, it appears that this tree had been identified as a tree with problems in the past and should have been removed. Had proper action being taken, we could have avoided this tragedy.”
Angela Skudin contends there was no storm, and certainly not high winds, before the tree crashed down.
“You think that you're going to an attraction like the Biltmore, the largest estate in America, and you think that when they invite you onto their grounds, that they're safe. If the grounds are open and the security guards are waving you in, you think you're safe,” Angela Skudin told the Citizen Times July 19. “From my own perspective and for Casey's legacy and anything that I do going forward, my No. 1 concern and my team's concern is to make sure that the rest of the property that Biltmore owns is actually safe. To be trying to hold up a tree over a road with cables, it's just incredible to me that they would play Russian roulette with the million-plus people that enter their property per year.” The American beech in question was tagged with a small blue plate that read “No. 28.” “People can't just think that a tree's life and the look of a road comes over a family, comes over a man. But that is just elitist thinking in the rawest form, and it's gross, and it's gluttonous that a tree came before my husband's life,” Skudin said.
From https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2022/07/20/biltmore-estate-lawsuit-gross-negligence-death-fdny-firefighter-falling-tree/10101721002
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