A woman who died in an Arby’s freezer “smacked her bloody hands” trying to escape, according to a lawsuit filed by her children.
Nguyet Le, 63, was trapped inside a walk-in cooler while on an extended temporary assignment as general manager at an Arby’s restaurant in New Iberia, Louisiana, owned by Turbo Restaurants, which is part of the franchise management company Sun Holdings, as reported by CBS.
Her son Nguyen “tragically” discovered her body when he arrived for his shift on May 11, the lawsuit says.
Nguyet Le was allegedly trapped in the cold room after other workers left to open before other employees arrived.
“The investigating officer reported that the inside of the freezer door was bloody, which led him to conclude that Mrs. Le panicked once she was locked inside and hit her hands trying to escape or get someone’s attention,” he says. the demand.
“Eventually, she collapsed into a fetal position face down on the frozen ground,” the document reads. The lawsuit claims that the company’s policy is to keep the freezer at least minus 10 degrees “if not colder.”
Preliminary reports list the cause of death as hypothermia, according to the lawsuit. However, the exact cause of death has not been determined.
Investigators previously said “no foul play is suspected,” the family’s attorney said in a news release.
The restaurant’s regional manager allegedly knew that the freezer latch was broken and “therefore, Turbo Restaurants was aware of an extremely dangerous condition in its restaurant since at least August 2022,” the lawsuit says.
“However, they acted with conscious indifference by not repairing the latch for almost 9 months. This was the cause, in fact, and the proximate cause of Ms. Le’s death,” the lawsuit continued.
Employees reportedly had to use a screwdriver to help open and close the door and an oil can to help open it, the lawsuit alleges.
According to the lawsuit, Le was a widow and mother of four children. Nguyen was Le’s eldest and lived with her because “he was somewhat disabled.”
The family is suing Turbo Restaurants, its franchise management company Sun Holdings and Arby’s parent company Inspire Brands for gross negligence.
Le’s children “demand” a jury trial and more than $1 million, as stated in the lawsuit.
They are seeking all damages available to a beneficiary for wrongful death under the law, loss of consortium, past and future mental anguish, conscious pain and suffering, loss of support, and loss of love and affection.
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