Suit In Carbon Monoxide Deaths Of Family Of Four Settled

Maybe now their surviving relatives will have some peace.

In 2008 an entire family that had won a stay at a luxurious mansion in Aspen died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the place. The victims were Parker Lofgren, 39, Caroline Lofgren, 42, and their children Owen, 10, and Sophie, 8.

On Thursday, a settlement was reached in the lawsuit brought by their families, according to the Aspen Daily News. There terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Several defendants had previously reached settlements in the case.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/157966

The Lofgren family died when a boiler that heated the hot water and snow-melt systems in the mansion where they were staying leaked carbon monoxide throughout the house. The boiler had been improperly installed, the suit had charged, and the mansion didn’t have a carbon monoxide detector, the Daily News reported.

The house had a state-of-the-art fire and burglar alarm system, but builders opted not to spend $600 to install hardwired carbon monoxide detectors, according to the local newspaper.

In 2010 the Lofgren relatives filed a wrongful death suit in Denver federal court, naming a host of defendants — many of them builders — in the action. The case was later sent to District Court in Denver.

There had been criminal charges filed against two ex-buildings inspectors who gave the mansion approvals and a plumbing and heating contractor who put in the boiler. But those charges were dismissed.

The litigation was filed by Parker Lofgren’s mother, Jean Rittenour of Portland, Ore., and Caroline Lofgren’s father and sister, Frederick Feuerbach of Lenox, Mass., and Hildy Feuerbach of Rockport, Mass., according to the Daily News.

The Feuerbach family has been crusading for legislation across the country to require residences to have carbon monoxide detectors, the local paper reported. With their lobbying, such laws were passed in Colorado, Maine, Oregon and Washington.

The case also brought attention to Colorado’s wrongful death laws, which don’t give grandparents of victims broad right to sue. In the Lofgren case, the plaintiffs could only seek damages for the deaths of Parker and Caroline Lofgren, not the couple’s two children, according to the Daily News.