BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The only lifeguard on duty at Palo Alto’s Eichler Swim and Tennis Club was wearing jeans, had no breaks during a six-hour shift and didn’t receive training before a man drowned there, according to a lawsuit brought by the man’s family.
In response, attorneys for the swim club at 3539 Louis Road said the lifeguard’s clothes didn’t cause the drowning, and the swim club isn’t required to provide perfect surveillance nor a perfect rescue.
“Our shared common sense tells us that the risk of drowning is present when swimming, although typically with small children,” the swim club’s attorneys said.
A former LinkedIn engineering director and father of four — Sumanth Kolar, 38, of Palo Alto — was swimming with two of his kids and jumped feet first off a diving board around 5 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2023.
Kids tried to help
Kolar struggled to stay afloat and started waving his hands, but he was too heavy for his kids to help, his family’s suit said.
So kids alerted 17-year-old lifeguard Brendan Ho, who pulled Kolar’s limp body out of the pool with the help of other club members in three to 10 minutes, the suit said.
Kolar was taken off life support at Stanford Hospital two days later.
His widow Anita Krishnakumar and their four kids sued the swim club for negligence, wrongful death and emotional distress in March 2024.
A trial is scheduled for Jan. 12 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
The family’s attorney Martin Neira said the swim club failed to follow American Red Cross lifeguarding principles.
For example, the swim club gave lifeguards other duties, like checking in guests on an iPad.
Ho testified in October 2024 that the swim club never trained him on scanning the pool in the year that he worked there nor told him that jeans were unacceptable attire.
“Eichler’s wholesale failures to provide a competent, attentive lifeguard coalesced in Sumanth’s drowning death,” Neira said.
He signed a waiver
The swim club’s primary defense is that Kolar signed a waiver that releases the swim club of liability.
Attorney Kevin Choalkian, representing the swim club, filed a motion to dismiss the case but withdrew it the day before a hearing with Judge Frederick Chung on Dec. 16.
Choalkian canceled the hearing because attorneys discovered an email from a club member who said he “observed Ho wearing ear plugs or looking at his phone on a prior occasion.”
The club member sent the email a week before Kolar drowned.
The swim club wasn’t trying to hide anything or mislead the court, but the email wasn’t found in initial keyword searches, Choalkian said.
Verdict might require sale of club
The family is seeking an “eight-figure sum” that would require the sale of the swim club, “a long-standing community institution,” Choalkian said.
The year-round club has a six-lane, 25-yard pool and diving well, four tennis courts and a barbecue area. The club has a 300-member cap and a 200-person waitlist, according to its website.
Club Manager Marla Guinn previously declined an interview about the drowning.
Kolar previously worked as a senior director of engineering at LinkedIn and Uber and was his baby’s primary caregiver, his wife said in a deposition.
“He changed all the diapers. He rocked him to sleep. He did all the night wake-ups. He drove all my children to school, walked them back. He took them to play dates. He took them to classes. He took them to soccer matches, ballet recitals,” Krishnakumar testified.
I guess I’m missing something important here. He jumped off a diving board feet first (no neck injury) and then “struggled to stay afloat.” Could he not swim? If he couldn’t swim why would he have jumped off the diving board in the deep end of the pool? He was clearly a smart man if he was an engineer. This situation makes no sense. Can someone clarify?
Also, as someone who was a Red Cross certified life guard in my youth, I find the labeling of someone standing around in jeans a “Lifeguard” offensive.