Guests who stayed at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles are now suing the proprietors after the corpse of a woman was found in a water tank.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, guests Steven and Gloria Cott claimed that the suit was a class action complaint as it would apply to all the guests who stayed at the hotel during the 19 days that the woman's decomposing body was in the water tank, CNN reports.
The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was decomposing in one of four rooftop cisterns from February 1 and 19 this year. Guests had been using the water to drink, bathe in and brush their teeth with during that time.
Due to complaints about the water, a maintenance worker checked the water system and found the Canadian tourist's body on February 19.
The Cotts said that the hotel had a contract with guests which said it would provide water "fit for human ingestion and human consumption through showering." With a body decomposing in the water system, the hotel didn't fulfill this contract.
"Instead, the defendants provided water that had been contaminated by human remains and was not fit for human ingestion or to use to wash," the lawsuit states according to CNN. The Cotts believe the water was tainted.
The water was immediately tested by the Los Angeles Public Health Department. The hotel was allowed to stay open as long as they provided bottled water to guests and warned them not to drink the hotel tap water.
The test showed that there was no harmful bacteria in the water system. Chlorine likely killed any bacteria that was in the tank.
Guests continued to check in to the hotel as Lam's body was removed, but they had to sign a waiver saying that the hotel wasn't liable if they got sick.
"You do so at your own risk and peril," the hotel's release said, according to CNN.
Those who already booked and paid for a room weren't given refunds for checking out.
The Cotts are demanding a $150 refund for the price they paid to stay for two nights at the hotel in mid-February. They also want their medical costs covered.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
