NEW ORLEANS — The family whose 17-year-old son was injured by a large tree branch in Jackson Square has officially filed a lawsuit, according to court documents.
The suit says the branch's failure "starts years earlier" than the incident, citing a negligent inspection done by an out-of-state tech company, deficient work from a city contractor, construction performed around the tree, and the city's failure to take measures to protect the public. The city of New Orleans, Arborpro Inc., Bayou Tree Services, Smith Construction Company, and Hudson Insurance Company are all named in the suit.
The injured teen is identified as Gavin Cristea of New Braunfels, Texas. The family is represented by local attorney Morris Bart.
"We're going to aggressively litigate this case. We're going to aggressively fight on behalf of the Cristea family. And to be quite honest, it has implications for all of us as New Orleanians, Bart said. As a New Orleanian myself, I'm very proud of the majestic live oak trees throughout our city. The beauty of these trees, but we need to know that we're safe."
Bart says it was the family’s first day in the city when the tree collapsed.
"It was a catastrophic fall, the limb fell directly on his head and pinned him to the ground for many minutes before he could be released from the limb itself. He was taken to the hospital. He is still in ICU.," Bart said.
Cristea was sitting on a bench with his mother and sibling in Jackson Square when the tree suddenly dropped and caused catastrophic damage. His brain, skull, face, and spine injuries are considered catastrophic.
Bart read a statement from the family that said the following about the incident: "It was preventable, it should not have happened, and cannot happen again. We were visiting a major tourist attraction. How can a visitor feel safe anywhere. It shouldn't have taken the tree crushing our child for the city to take this seriously. Regarding the condition of Gavin, the Cristea family says there are just so many unknowns right now. We don't even know what the damage to his brain is, and we already know that he has so many more surgeries ahead. It's been a real roller coaster for us. And every time, it looks like things start going well. There is some kind of setback, and we are back to square one.
Bart points to the first limb failure that happened on June 27, saying the tree was clearly showing signs of decay. He says the city should have roped off the area.
"Why did they didn't rope off the area? I have no answer for that. But I can assure you we will find out," Bart said.
After the incident, the city told WWL-TV the tree was inspected on June 27 and June 28 after the first limb fell. Through those inspections, the city determined there was an "imminent" threat of failure.
City spokesman John Lawson previously said in a statement about the June 27 incident.
"The mature live oak was inspected by Parks and Parkways arborists on June 27 while performing clean up to remove a large failed limb (referred to as a leader). The tree was again inspected on June 28. The determination then was made to perform additional pruning on a smaller dead limb and reevaluate the health and balance of the tree once specialized equipment was made available to access the square. When an immediate risk for failure is observed through arborist inspection, a tree is removed immediately. Our arborists concluded, based on the two remaining sections of the tree, that there was not an elevated risk of additional large limb or whole tree failure."
Mayor LaToya Cantrell also addressed whether the tree should have been roped off after the first tree limb fell last week.
“There’s always room to go deeper, to go the extra mile because what we’ve learned is that just you never know and even as the tree was inspected prior to this incident, it was inspected giving us no indication of an imminent danger of collapsing.”
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.