BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The family of a man who drowned in Palo Alto has privately settled their lawsuit that blamed the Eichler Swim and Tennis Club’s inadequate lifeguarding.
Neither side is disclosing the terms of the settlement, though the victim’s family had originally wanted an 8-digit sum.
The case centered on the death of Sumanth Kolar, 38, of Palo Alto, who jumped off a diving board and immediately struggled to stay afloat around 5 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2023.
His two middle children, age 7 and 9, looked for the lifeguard, whose station was about 10 feet away, but 17-year-old lifeguard Brendan Ho was at the other end of the pool at 3539 Louis Road, the suit said.
Ho was allegedly wearing jeans, had no breaks during his six-hour shift and didn’t receive training throughout his time working there, the suit claims.
Ho pulled Kolar’s limp body out of the pool with the help of other club members in three to 10 minutes, and Kolar was taken off life support at Stanford Hospital two days later, the suit said.
Kolar previously worked as a senior director of engineering at LinkedIn and Uber and was his baby’s primary caregiver, his wife Anita Krishnakumar said in a deposition in October.
“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.
Krishnakumar and their four kids sued the swim club in March 2024 for negligence, wrongful death and emotional distress.
In response, attorney Shamika Bains raised questions about Kolar’s medical history and swimming abilities. She said Ho’s clothes didn’t cause the drowning.
“Our shared common sense tells us that the risk of drowning is present when swimming, although typically with small children,” Bains wrote in response for the lawsuit.
Judge Frederick Chung criticized Bains for quoting a case that “appears to be completely made up” to support her argument.
The case being generated by AI is the most benign explanation, and intentional deception would violate the California State Bar’s rules for professional conduct, Chung said.
“It is particularly troubling that this phony case is the key legal citation that defendant relies on, making it hard to argue that its inclusion was merely accidental,” Chung said.
The swim club also canceled a 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, Bains said.
Kolar’s family wanted an “8-figure sum” that would require the sale of the swim club, “a long-standing community institution,” Bains said.
The two sides reached a settlement this week rather than going to a trial scheduled for Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
“I can’t share any details about it,” Bains said on a phone call.
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.
It would have been a different story if he had learned how to swim.
That’s the first thing they all learn when they come to this country: you can sue for millions
Like most settlements, the family probably settled for what the insurance would pay for. I’m sure they didn’t want to be the pariahs that “closed the swim club.” What I really want to know is what, if any, consequences were applied to the management that let these “life guards” cause this tragedy?