There's no denying the tragedy.
It was 2007. 15-year-old Angel Diaz had been invited to go jet-skiing on E Lake in SW Miami-Dade County, near The Falls shopping mall. In broad daylight, Diaz crashed a SeaDoo and died.
Was it a simple accident, or should someone be held responsible for the teenager's death?
"The parents are now sueing every single resident of E Lake," says Gene Kohly, who owns a home on the lake.
That's correct. The lawsuit lists every homeowner who lives on the lake. Five pages of names. All 202 people, it says, are responsible for Angel Diaz's death. Except the homeowner who invited Angel to use the lake that day. He's not listed.
"It is outrageous," Kohly told us. "I was having a discussion with my neighbors and we all say, how can they sue us, what could we have done, and I say, I don't know. We just feel that we're being unfairly targeted for money."
The Diaz family's lawyer has a response, of course. "Nothing could be more absurd [than to call the lawsuit unfair]," said Jeremy Alters. "This famly is devastated, they want their son back, which isn't going to happen, and this lawsuit is the only way to compensate this family for the loss they suffered."
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Alters says there is collective responsibility, and here's why: Angel's waterbike, he contends, hit a barely-submerged branch from a tree knocked over by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The impact catapualted Diaz into the air and he smashed into a dock. County documents show each homeowner on the lake is responsible for lake maintenance. Alters points out, "That same platte, restriction and covenant requires them to maintain the lake and remove hazards from the lake, one of those hazards being the tree, so it would've been good for the people who had the tree to remove it, but everyone on that lake had the responsibility to remove it."
The residents say they don't even have a homeowner's association. They voluntarily contribute to a fund to pay a company that sprays herbicides to keep invasive plants out, but that's all they've ever done, and accuse the lawyer of simply casting a wide net, hoping to reel in as much setlement money from insurance companies as possible.
Both sides point to photos to bolster their claims. Aerial pictures show the submerged tree's trunk protrudes near the dock, but the rest of the tree fans out toward deeper water. The family contends because of drought at the time, the water level was low and a branch was sticking up at least 30 feet out into the deeper area. It's hard to tell from the pictures if that's true, but it could be easily argued that no one should be riding a SeaDoo so close to the docks, anyway. Pictures of the SeaDoo show a large scrape on its bottom, but virtually no damage on its front, proving, Alter says, that the waterbike didn't smash into the dock as some residents claim.
Gene Kohly says there's nothing in his deed that requires him to police the other side of the lake from his home.
"This is beyond ridiculous and we can't understand it," he says. "It seems that in America you can sue someone at any time for any reason."
A judge and a fleet of lawyers will no doubt have to figure it all out. Frivoulous lawsuit or justifiable claim? No matter how it shakes out, Angel Diaz is gone forever.
