Ocean City, Maryland, has been released from a lawsuit by a woman who was impaled by an umbrella in 2018.
Jill Mendygral, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, was on the beach near 54th Street when she was hit in the chest by a rental umbrella which had come out of the sand because of a wind gust. She needed to be flown to emergency surgery to remove the umbrella.
She sued Ocean City and the rental company, 85 N Sunny, claiming that since there was a wind advisory on the beach, the company should have known to fold its umbrellas so they wouldn’t fly away, and that the town had failed to protect the safety of visitors to the beach.
The court said that Ocean City shouldn’t be held liable as a whole, but gave Mendrygal 21 days to change her complaint to include any specific town workers and any specific things they did or didn’t do.
The rental company is still subject to the lawsuit. Mendrygal is looking for $75,000 from each.
