A Jefferson County jury has awarded $660,000 in a lawsuit against a daycare center where a mother says her child became sick after being exposed to a chemical found in marijuana.
After a four-day trial, a jury Friday awarded both punitive and compensatory damages to the family of the injured child.
In the lawsuit, Brittany Maddox said her then nine-month-old daughter Zeriel became severely ill after being exposed to THC at Baby Duck Academy in Birmingham in June 2022.
The daycare, which is still in operation, is located on Old Springville Road in east Birmingham.
The suit says the child suffered an altered mental state, hypothermia, and mental anguish as a result of exposure to the drug at the daycare.
“Obviously, such reprehensible actions created great health risks to the 9-month-old baby, Z.P.,” according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Eric Guster. “Further, said employees failed to take appropriate action to care for Z.P. after causing her exposure to THC and gave no notice of such events to her parents or family members.”
According to the CDC, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the compound responsible for most of cannabis’s psychoactive effects - or the high.
The family’s lawsuit says that the girl was “virtually nonresponsive” when her grandmother arrived at the daycare center.
“Z.P.’s family was able to slightly wake her, only for Z.P. to eject black vomit, then fall back into an altered mental state,” according to the lawsuit.
The child was taken to the emergency room where doctors confirmed her condition was caused by the presence of THC in her blood. She was then admitted for intensive care and observation.
THC can be passed to infants and children through secondhand smoke, according to the CDC. Studies have found strong associations between reports of having someone in the home who uses cannabis and children having detectable levels of THC. Children exposed to THC are potentially at risk for negative health effects, according to the CDC.
Guster said his client was one of two children from different households who were injured on the same day at the same daycare.
“These two infants were at Children’s Hospital Emergency Room the same day at the same time, after parents picked them up from Baby Duck Academy,” he told AL.com. “Both victims were younger than 11 months old. The evidence was clear the exposure happened while they were at Baby Duck Academy.”
Lawyers for Baby Duck Academy have not responded to requests for comment from AL.com. The business was organized by Birmingham Board of Education member Sherman Collins Jr., according to the Alabama Secretary of State. Collins referred AL.com to Baby Duck’s attorneys.
Guster said the business refused to cooperate in finding out just what happened, by denying there were video recordings in the baby room of the facility.
“Further, Collins and his staff did not cooperate with DHR when contacted, did not take drug tests, and Collins did not send DHR the video of the infant room he promised he would send. DHR should re-open this investigation based on the testimony during this trial,” Guster said.
In the daycare’s legal response to the lawsuit, Baby Duck denied responsibility for the injuries to the child, denied failing to train or supervise employees. It also asserted the “failure of the Plaintiff or her parents to mitigate her damages.”
Guster said the daycare staff was never tested for use of THC, in contras to the parents and grandparent of his client. The family submitted to drug tests that proved there was no drug use history and residence inspections to clear their names.
Still, he said the jury’s verdict Friday “sent a loud message” in delivering justice.
This article originally appeared in the Birmingham Real-Time News