Husband of Central Coast teacher who died sues pool contractor

The husband of a California teacher who died in 2024 is suing a Southern California-based contractor for wrongful death, alleging that construction of a high school pool led to her death. 

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Earlier this month, Los Osos resident Edwin Van Fleet, whose wife, Judith Van Fleet, died in 2024, filed a lawsuit against Nadar Inc., an Altadena-based contracting and engineering firm. Nadar does large-scale pool builds, primarily for high schools and colleges and aquatic centers throughout the state.

San Luis Coastal Unified School District contracted the construction firm to build a pool at Morro Bay High School, starting in the summer of 2016. 

“During the 2016-2017 school year, decedent Judith Van Fleet was a math teacher at MBHS,” the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11 in SLO County Superior Court states. During that time, construction began on a new swimming pool at the school, “with the excavation site located immediately adjacent to decedent’s classroom,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that the construction firm is to blame for Van Fleet’s death, noting that exposure to the construction activity led to a downturn in her health and ultimately her death.

“As general contractor, defendant NADAR owed decedent a duty of care to mitigate fugitive dust and diesel particulate emissions as required by the Project’s Air Pollution Control District (APCD) mitigation measures,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that “as result of defendants’ noncompliance with the required mitigation measures, the excavation and operation of heavy diesel-powered equipment generated significant amounts of dust and diesel emissions, which entered decedent’s classroom even when the windows were closed.”

Though excavation work was set to be complete prior to the school year, the lawsuit estimates that from Aug. 19, 2016, through Sept. 13, 2016, Van Fleet “was exposed to dust, fumes, and diesel emissions in her classroom for those 17 to 18 workdays.”

The lawsuit alleges that the project was “designed, planned, and executed” in an “unreasonably dangerous” manner, including operating heavy equipment next to occupied classrooms during the school year “without adequate safeguards to prevent exposure to hazardous dust and emissions.” Shortly after the excavation process for the pool started, Van Fleet developed several symptoms of exposure, “including cough, wheezing, difficulty breathing, sinus congestion, headache, hoarse voice, weakness, memory loss and cognitive decline,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says that Van Fleet went to Med-Stop for “breathing difficulties” and received oxygen and a rescue inhaler. The next day, she returned to teaching but “experienced sudden onset of cognitive difficulties typical of excessive exposure to dust and emissions, including trouble remembering students’ names and difficulty following her lesson plan.”

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On Sept. 14, Van Fleet and her students were moved to a different classroom and the “original classroom was abandoned for the remainder of the school year due to the dust and air quality concerns,” the lawsuit says.

But the damage had allegedly been done. “Cognitive symptoms persisted and worsened over time, leading to [Van Fleet’s] early retirement from teaching in June 2017,” the lawsuit states. 

A series of doctors evaluated Van Fleet for the next several years as her health continued to deteriorate. In June 2024, “she was immobile, bedbound, incontinent, unable to speak, and required 24-hour caregiving.” Van Fleet died on Aug. 12, 2024, “with the immediate cause of death listed as respiratory failure and hypoxic encephalopathy,” the lawsuit states. 

The lawsuit says that her doctor “concluded that the causation and apportionment of decedent’s neurocognitive impairment were 100% due to toxic fumes and dust exposure at work during the period of August 19, 2016, through September 13, 2016.”

SFGATE reached out to Patrick Fisher, the attorney for the plaintiff, Edward Van Fleet, but did not hear back from him by the time of publication. Judith Van Fleet, age 66 at the time of her death, died of respiratory failure and hypoxic encephalopathy, according to her SLO County death certificate, which was attached to the lawsuit. Neither the school district nor the city of Morro Bay were named in the lawsuit. 

SFGATE reached out to construction company Nadar for a statement. A spokesperson told SFGATE on Monday that the company declined to comment on the lawsuit.