ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by a parent of a 3-year-old boy who was found dead earlier this year in a body of water at an Orange County resort.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the child — Rakim Akbari, who investigators described as having autism — was reported missing on July 18 after wandering away from a resort near State Road 535.
Rakim Akbari was found dead later that day in a body of water at the resort, the sheriff’s office said.
The lawsuit — filed on Thursday by Tarina Akbari with co-counsel from the Haggard Law Firm and Ben Crump Law — demands a jury trial for damages in excess of $50,000 in Rakim Akbari’s death, stating the 3-year-old drowned in a retention pond at Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas.
The suit names Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, Vistana Management, Inc., Vistana Development, Inc. and Vistana Spa Condominium Association, Inc. as defendants.
In the text, the defendants are accused of negligence. It’s alleged therein that the owners, management and operators of Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas “owed a duty to (Rakim Akbari) to exercise reasonable care in keeping (their) retention ponds in a reasonably safe condition for the safety of all persons lawfully (at the resort).”
The lawsuit claims that the defendants allowed dangerous and defective conditions on resort grounds via a retention pond that was only partially secured and had a dangerous side slope “thereby increasing the risk of drowning posed to children.” Further, the suit states the defendants failed to monitor the retention pond, commission routine inspections of it or maintain it “in conformity with the minimum design specifications that were submitted to, and approved by the water management district.”
News 6 has reached out to the resort for comment.
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