SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A lawsuit filed by the family of the 19-month-old boy who fell from a third-story hotel window in April 2024 claims the hotel room’s window screen was a hazard that could be easily pushed out of place and the window did not have a safety mechanism.
Madden Hein of Minnesota, died after falling three stories from a window at Clubhouse Hotel and Suites. He fell on April 13 and died on April 15. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month by Philip Allen Nasby, a representative of Hein, against Ramkota Companies, Clubhouse Hotel and Suites and Regency Hotel Management.
The lawsuit seeks to recover pain and suffering for Hein and the medical bills as well as citing punitive damages from Hein’s death for the next of kin.
Sioux Falls Police investigated the incident and concluded the fall was an accident.
In the days following Hein’s fall, KELOLAND News attempted to get more details from Sioux Falls Police. Police declined to share details and police spokesman Sam Clemens said in an April 18 email: “According to South Dakota State Law, police reports are not a public document and all of the information requested is contained in the police report. We will not be releasing the report or further details on this incident. The investigation is complete and everything shows this was a tragic accident; there will be no criminal charges filed.”
The lawsuit uses details from the Sioux Falls Police investigation. A named detective discovered it took “very little force” to displace the window screen. Another officer said the window screen may have created a “false sense of security,” because it was not immediately apparent the screen was unsecured and had “a lot of flex to it.”
Officers noted the screen could be pushed out of place with little force, even just a fingertip, according to the lawsuit.
The investigation also showed the entire screen was displaced and fell to the concrete below and was not ripped or torn, the lawsuit claims.
Ramkota Companies and the other named defendants are negligent in Hein’s death because they were aware the window screens displaced “so easily that a toddler was able to push the screen out of the window in September of 2020,” but they did not address the hazard, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit describes in detail an incident it says happened in 2020 when a grandparent reported to the hotel that a screen had detached and fell when a grandchild touched it. The grandparent had a hold of a grandchild, otherwise the child may have fallen from the window, the lawsuit claims. The grandparent warned the hotel and the response was that it had not been able to keep up with routine maintenance because of COVID, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit also claims that because the window in 2024 did not have a safety mechanism, it opened wider than expected. When Hein’s mother saw that her son was not at the window she discovered the window had opened wider than she had placed it. Hein was with his mother Kathyrn Hein as she was packing for an outing. She had opened the window a crack because of the smell of her son’s dirty diaper, according to the lawsuit.
KELOLAND News left a message with the corporate Ramkota Companies office. This story will be updated if the company responds.
