Family of ex-Yankees player Gardner sues resort

The family of frail Unique York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner filed a wrongful loss of life lawsuit Friday in opposition to the owners and operators of the Costa Rican resort the save their 14-yr-aged son Miller used to be stumbled on slow of carbon monoxide poisoning in March 2025.

Six months after authorities raided Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort, the plaintiffs acknowledged in the lawsuit that the defendants “failed to comply with basic safety standards,” and the family’s prison skilled acknowledged there used to be proof of, and warnings about, the need for safeguards.

The lawsuit added, without providing proof, that other traffic suffered “similar injuries” while staying in the identical rooms. Miller Gardner’s fogeys and older brother changed into seriously ill, and the lawsuit acknowledged Brett Gardner described “fighting for his life” and feeling as if he used to be “unable to use his arms or legs.”

The Gardner family stayed in rooms adjacent to a mechanical shield a watch on room from the save it acknowledged the carbon monoxide emitted, the lawsuit acknowledged. That took space attributable to of the defendants’ placement of a gas water heater and failure to present appropriate air stir along with the circulation, in step with the complaint.

“We felt all along that this tragedy could have been prevented, and the preliminary investigation reports confirmed our beliefs,” the Gardner family acknowledged in a assertion.

The family’s prison skilled, Michael Eisner, added: “Documents show they were warned and failed to implement simple changes for the safety of their guests. There must be accountability for these types of owner decisions.”

The family is asking for damages for wrongful loss of life, coarse negligence and emotional effort, amongst other issues. No prison prices own been filed, and an investigation in Costa Rica continues.

Two Pennsylvania executives, their enterprise capital company and two Costa Rican companies they’re connected to were named in the federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania. David Callan, director and president of the companies, and R. Scott Williams, the secretary, are the executives named.

Williams did no longer acknowledge to a message left by ESPN, and Callan could possibly well no longer be reached.

After Miller Gardner died March 21, 2025, Brett Gardner and his partner, Jessica, announced their youngest son’s loss of life March 23 in a assertion released by the Yankees. In line with the assertion, Miller Gardner fell ill in conjunction with several other family while on shuttle.

Two days later, a consultant from Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department (OIJ) informed ESPN that the Gardner family had “gone to eat at a restaurant and that the food had made them sick.” The spokesperson acknowledged the OIJ idea to be asphyxiation ahead of ruling it out, and the division later informed ESPN by textual reveal message that investigators believed the loss of life to be unintended in space of the finish results of pass play.

On April 2, authorities acknowledged the loss of life used to be precipitated by carbon monoxide, which will own emanated from an adjacent machine room. Two months later, a consultant from the prosecutor’s office informed ESPN that the case remained below investigation and that prosecutors sought “to determine whether the cause of death was a homicide or not, and, if so, to establish responsibility.”

Three months after that, when authorities raided the hotel to find further proof, a Costa Rican prosecutor informed ESPN that the investigation could possibly well lead to a manslaughter case.

Miller Gardner played excessive college football in South Carolina and wore No. 11, which his father donned for the duration of 14 MLB seasons, all with the Yankees. Brett Gardner, a most smartly-liked team chief, used to be a member of Unique York’s 2009 championship team and retired in 2021.

ESPN’s Gueorgui Milkov contributed to this epic.