A Detroit lawyer announced Thursday that he is providing legal counsel to initiate a lawsuit against Niles’ Quality Inn & Suites on behalf of the victims injured during Saturday’s carbon monoxide leak.
Attorney Ven Johnson of Johnson Law PLC said he is working to finalize the pleadings. The case is anticipated to be officially filed late next week.
Among those represented is the family of Bryan Douglas-Watts, a 13-year-old Niles resident who died en route to the hospital after a pool heater vent malfunctioned and leaked upward of 800 parts per million of carbon monoxide into the air. Johnson said although he is not representing all of the victims in this case, he has been counseling at least four families.
“We will be alleging what is obvious to everybody,” Johnson said. “Which is that the pool and the pool heater was not appropriately either installed and or maintained. All they had to do was a have a carbon monoxide detector anywhere near this.”

Authorities conducting the investigation have yet to officially release whether or not carbon monoxide detectors were inside the hotel. According to official Michigan legislature, carbon monoxide detectors are only required in buildings and structures newly constructed on or after Dec. 1, 2009.
The Quality Inn & Suites was built in 2001, according to authorities.
The investigation is expected to wrap up this week, but Johnson said the fact that children were overcome by the gas indicates that there likely was no alarm.
“There would have been alarms sounding and this whole thing would have been prevented,” Johnson said. “It is just like a smoke detector.”
The attorney said victims in this case are calling for more than justice, they are calling for change.
Through the lawsuit, Johnson said he hopes to raise interest and effectuate legislature that mandates the placement of carbon monoxide detectors in all commercial buildings, as well as enact a maintenance program where equipment is monitored.
“It is ridiculous that we do not require business owners to for this simple and very inexpensive safety feature,” Johnson said. “Many, many people have them in their houses because of this very thing.”
Johnson said scenarios involving a defective pool heaters and injured people is not uncommon. He said he has handled similar cases in the past.
The equipment is “notorious for this type of injury and problem,” Johnson said.
The body of Bryan Douglas-Watts is undergoing an autopsy, complete with a toxicology report, in Grand Rapids. The results are expected to be returned in approximately a month.
Johnson said he believes that Douglas-Watts died of oxygen depletion due to carbon monoxide overexposure.
As far as why Douglas-Watts was impacted more severely than others, Johnson said that different levels of carbon monoxide have the potential to impact people differently.
“If you are asking if anything else that contributed to his death, the answer is going to be ‘no,’” Johnson said.
As the story of the fatal carbon monoxide leak has spread across the nation, some have questioned why the children were not being supervised by the pool.
Johnson said he is unaware whether the hotel had posted any age guidelines regarding pool usage. But he questioned whether an adult present would have been able to make a difference.
“If an adult were there [they] would have been overcome as well. It [would] have had no impact whatsoever on the carbon monoxide,” Johnson said.
Douglas-Watts’ funeral is expected to take place at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 13, at the Faith Apostolic Church, 909 N. Bendix Dr., South Bend, Indiana. A GoFundMe account has been set up by the family to assist with funeral expenses.
The Watts family said they have been grateful for the community’s support at this time.
Though asking for privacy, the family is grateful for the support, and released a statement through its attorney.
The local Quality Inn & Suites did not comment Thursday. Choice Hotels was contacted for comment and said that the hotel is independently owned and that they had not released a statement at this time.