A former Brigham Young University football player and coach has sued several window blind companies for allegedly manufacturing and installing a faulty product that led to the death of his 3-year-old daughter in 2016.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in 3rd District Court, cites as defendants BlindVision, Century Blinds Inc., Hunter Douglas Inc., Turnils North America Inc. and 10 unnamed parties.
The lawsuit was filed by Sunny and Reno Mahe, on behalf of their daughter Elsie Mahe. On Nov. 22, 2016, Elsie was snarled in a cord attached to blinds at the Mahe family home in Utah County, according to the lawsuit. Elsie suffered substantial respiratory distress and sustained brain damage.
One of the Mahes’ attorneys, Alan Mortensen, said some blinds manufacturers add a safety mechanism to make sure cords can’t get in a position to strangle a child. It’s a cheap and easy fix, he said, but the makers of the Mahes’ blinds opted to not add that feature.
“This is a horrible tragedy that could have been easily prevented,” Mortensen said. “These blinds are known to strangle kids. For pennies, this could be prevented.”
Elsie clung to her life for a week with help from a ventilator, but she died Nov. 29, 2016.
As a result, the family incurred medical and funeral expenses, as well as emotional trauma, says the lawsuit, which seeks an amount of money to be determined at trial.
Mortensen said the expenses are not the lion’s share of what he believes the defendants are responsible for.
“It’s why we have juries,” he said. “Juries tell us what the loss of a child is.”
BlindVision, a Salt Lake County company that installed the blinds, let its business license expire in January 2016, according to state records. When reached Thursday, a representative for Century Blinds referred The Tribune to parent company Hunter Douglas. The corporate office did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment. Turnils North America also did not respond to a request.
The defendants, according to the lawsuit, are responsible for producing a potentially deadly product, are negligent by selling a dangerous product and are in breach of the product’s warranty because the blinds were deadly.
The blinds’ cord is capable of exceeding 7¼ feet long, causing an unreasonable risk of strangulation, the lawsuit says. The blinds also did not have a mechanism to eliminate the strangulation hazard. The lawsuit says the defendants did not disclose the dangers of the product they are associated with.
Mortensen said warning language on the blinds was not clear enough and was not in line with federal guidelines.
Reno Mahe was a Brighton High School standout who played for BYU from 1998 to 2002. He was with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles for the next five years before returning to BYU as running backs coach in 2016. He left left the Cougars in December.
As the family deals with the tragedy, it is using the negligence of the blind makers to promote awareness so similar things don’t happen to others, Mortensen said.
“The Mahe family is trying to make the best of it, and they are trying to use this tragedy to help others know,” Mortensen said.
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