ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 It was supposed to be a peaceful Florida vacation for a couple and their five children at a lake house in Wellington, but it ended in a nightmare, a lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
A day after Lydie and Boris Lavenir arrived at their Airbnb rental, she found their 19-month-old daughter, Enora, foaming at the mouth with a lethal amount of fentanyl in her blood, according to the wrongful death complaint. After paramedics rushed her to the hospital, she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
The source of the fentanyl remains a mystery.<\/p>\n
Now, the Lavenirs are suing Airbnb, along with the house\u2019s owner, the rental agent and the man who previously booked a stay there, arguing that he or his fellow guests brought the fentanyl that killed their daughter into the house.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit adds to the increasing scrutiny surrounding short-term rentals, which surged in popularity during the pandemic but have received pushback from nearby residents who complain about noise, trash, and rising housing costs. In some areas, local governments have banned them entirely.<\/p>\n
In June, Airbnb announced a permanent ban on parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is the industry\u2019s dirty little secret,\u201d said Thomas Scolaro, the family\u2019s lawyer, who commented on their behalf. \u201cIt\u2019s their dirty little secret that their houses are often used as party houses where drugs are used and abused.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lavenirs had arrived at the house from Guadeloupe, a French island in the Caribbean, with plans to spend a weekend there, then a few days in Orlando and a few days in Tampa, Scolaro said.<\/p>\n
They had booked a stay through Airbnb at the four-bedroom, two-bathroom lake house on The 12th Fairway, in an \u201caffluent\u201d residential neighborhood, according to the wrongful death complaint, from Aug. 6 through Aug. 9, 2021. But they didn\u2019t know what had transpired there in the weeks before their stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe representations made by Airbnb created, to say the least, a false sense of security,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cIn reality, the subject premises had a history of being used as a party house.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Aug. 7, the day after the family had checked in, Enora Lavenir lay down next to her 14-year-old sister for a nap in one of the beds.<\/p>\n
Earlier that morning, she had brought her father his slippers. He had fallen asleep, then woke up again and went to get milk from the kitchen, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office incident report. From the other room, he heard someone scream, \u201cEnora is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lydie Lavenir had gone to check on her 19-month-old daughter and found her, unresponsive, in the bed, according to the report. Her face was blue.<\/p>\n
Lavenir tried to do CPR while other family members called 911. Paramedics took her to the hospital, where doctors were unable to revive her, the report says. A medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was acute fentanyl toxicity.<\/p>\n
Both parents tested negative for drug use.<\/p>\n
Between July 30 and Aug. 1, five days before the Lavenirs arrived, Aaron Kornhauser visited Palm Beach County for a concert. He booked the Wellington house for six adults, the complaint states, when, in fact, 11 adults were staying there. During his stay, people brought drugs to the home and used them on the kitchen counter and in the bedrooms.<\/p>\n
The Lavenirs are arguing that one of those drugs was fentanyl.<\/p>\n
In a court filing, Kornhauser\u2019s attorney said he admitted to renting the house for those dates but denied the remaining allegations. Kornhauser told detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office that a group of guests had used cocaine and marijuana in the house but not fentanyl, according to the incident report. They did cocaine on the kitchen island.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Airbnb said that the Lavenirs were the first family to rent the home using Airbnb, and that Kornhauser booked his stay using Vrbo, another short-term rental company.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts go out to the Lavenir family and their loved ones for their devastating loss,\u201d Airbnb said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Kornhauser could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Though the lawsuit does not currently name Vrbo, Scolaro says he plans to file a lawsuit against them as well. The company did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
After Kornhauser\u2019s stay, the rental agent for the property, Yulia Timpy, sent him a message, according to the court documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and your family were perfect tenants!!\u201d it read. \u201cHouse was same way that I give it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that, in addition to Airbnb, Kornhauser, Timpy and the owner of the house, Ronald Cortamilia, are all responsible.<\/p>\n
In responses filed in court, Cortamilia and Kornhauser denied responsibility and argued that the parents were negligent.<\/p>\n
Scolaro said that companies like Airbnb and Vrbo have rating systems that encourage hosts to accept requests from guests, even if they don\u2019t want to. If a host declines too many requests from potential guests, their rating goes down, he said.<\/p>\n
Rental companies could do \u201ca litany of things\u201d to stop or curtail incidents like Enora Lavenir\u2019s death, Scolaro added, like party bans with \u201creal enforcement mechanisms\u201d and allowing homeowners not to rent to people they get a \u201cbad vibe\u201d from.<\/p>\n
Neighbors told investigators that they observed parties at the same house in late June or early July, before Kornhauser\u2019s stay, according to the PBSO incident report.<\/p>\n
Another party took place on Labor Day weekend, after Enora Lavenir\u2019s death. One of the neighbors told detectives that he reported the party, and the rental agent arrived and shut it down.<\/p>\n
Unable to find the source of the fentanyl that killed the Lavenirs\u2019 daughter, the Sheriff\u2019s Office closed the investigation almost a year later, pending any new leads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am currently unable to determine how the child, Enora Lavenir, ingested the fentanyl,\u201d the detective concluded in the report. \u201cTherefore I am unable to develop probable cause for abuse or neglect leading to the death of Enora.\u201d<\/p>\n
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