Family Sues Wildwood Crest After Son Drowns in Rip Current

Family Sues Wildwood Crest After Son Drowns in Rip Current

As first reported via NJ.com, The family of a 21-year-old Marlton man who drowned while swimming at a Wildwood Crest beach last summer has filed a civil lawsuit against the borough and its beach patrol, alleging negligence, inadequate training, and violations of civil rights.

The complaint, filed August 4 in Cape May County Superior Court by Deborah Volm, the mother of Joseph Volm and executor of his estate, claims that borough officials and lifeguards failed to properly warn beachgoers of hazardous conditions, including dangerous rip currents that were present on the day of Joseph’s death.

According to the filing, Volm arrived with family members at the Hollywood Avenue beach on August 5, 2023, when he was quickly swept out to sea by a rip current.

He was later pulled from the water unresponsive. Lifeguards administered CPR before he was transported to Cape Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The lawsuit alleges that the borough and its beach patrol failed to post red flags, maintain proper staffing levels, or provide adequate warnings despite being aware of hazardous surf conditions.

It further claims that the beach patrol’s website touted robust safety measures, advertising 56 lifeguards and six supervising lieutenants on duty daily yet did not deliver on those promises.

“Despite knowledge of the foregoing, Defendants and their policy and decision makers had in place and/or adopted policies of inadequate supervision and inadequate training,” the suit reads.

The complaint lists more than a dozen failures by the borough, including insufficient lifeguard training, poor supervision, and a lack of proper emergency protocols.

Volm’s family is seeking damages under federal civil rights laws, specifically citing violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The suit claims that Joseph Volm’s constitutional rights were violated due to a “state-created danger” and that borough officials acted with deliberate indifference to public safety.

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It also alleges that the borough’s conduct “shocks the conscience,” a legal standard used in constitutional claims involving government wrongdoing.

Adding later, “The harm created by Defendants was foreseeable and direct, such that Defendants knew that risk of injury to Plaintiff’s decedent was a foreseeable and real danger, and that having adequate, appropriate, and necessary policies and procedures for protecting beachgoers was essential to the safety and well-being of persons such as Plaintiff’s decedent and the community, and that failing to appropriately train and require employees, lifeguards, and beach patrol staff to monitor and supervise the beach and beachgoers would result in serious bodily injury.”

The family is also pursuing claims under New Jersey’s Wrongful Death and Survival Acts, seeking compensation for medical costs, funeral expenses, emotional trauma, and loss of future income.

According to the filing, Joseph Volm’s mother and other estate beneficiaries are entitled to damages for pain and suffering, companionship, and the economic support he would have provided.

Filed by the law firm Sacchetta & Baldino of Woodbury, N.J., the lawsuit names the Borough of Wildwood Crest, the Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol, and a series of unnamed individuals and entities as defendants. The family has requested a jury trial.

As of Thursday, neither the Borough of Wildwood Crest nor its beach patrol had commented publicly on the lawsuit.