A multi-million-dollar lawsuit has been filed against the owners of a North York apartment building after a toddler fell to her death from a window that broke in the family’s unit on the 19th floor. In a lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, lawyers for parents Deepali Kashyap and Rakshit Chauhan said their daughter, who CTV News is not naming, was in a bedroom of the high-rise near Don Mills Road and Graydon Hall Drive on May 10 before the fall occurred. The lawsuit claims that their daughter “gently touched” a window in the bedroom while she was playing with her parents on Mother’s Day. The glass suddenly and without warning broke, causing her to fall out of the unit. “Deepali Kashyap and Rakshit Chauhan witnessed this traumatic event. Although they were only a short distance away, they were unable to reach (her) before she fell,” the statement of claim read. Their daughter, who was just 11 days shy of her second birthday, was pronounced dead at the scene. “This is every parent’s worst nightmare,” the family’s lawyer, Mike Smitiuch, told CTV News Toronto. “And to make matters worse, the parents were in the same room. They tried to grab their child before she could fall through the glass, and they weren’t able to,” he said. The lawsuit, which also names the girl’s grandparents as plaintiffs, says the death caused them to suffer psychiatric damage and/or nervous shock “over and above the reasonable effects of grief.” The owners and building managers for 50 Graydon Hall Drive are listed as defendants in the suit, which is seeking a total of $18 million in damages. The suit alleges, among other things, that the defendants caused or permitted unsafe and inadequate glass windows to be installed within the building and failed to install adequate safety locks. Beyond that, lawyers for the parents say that the defendants were, or should have been, aware of “similar previous” incidents or circumstances where unsafe and inadequate glass on the property resulted in injury or harm to residents and failed to take precautions to prevent further incidents. The defendants also behaved in an “aggressive, hostile, and intimidating” manner toward the plaintiffs’ glass expert while the expert attempted to inspect the incident location, the suit charges. Smitiuch went on to say that, at one point, the building was open to adults-only, but later converted to a family dwelling. “What we’re saying is: things should have been looked at and carefully reviewed to make sure that children would be safe,” he said, adding that the single-pane of glass in the unit was “extremely fragile.” CTV News Toronto has reached out to Graydon Hall Management for comment on the lawsuit but has not received a response. With files from Janice Golding
