The family of a six-year-old girl killed in a horrifying badminton accident says her death could have been avoided with a safety feature that would have cost only pennies, according to a newly filed wrongful death lawsuit.
Lucy Morgan, a New Jersey child, was on a family getaway in Maine in June 2024 when a quiet afternoon at a lakeside rental cottage in Limerick became a devastating tragedy.
Lucy had been sitting off to the side while her 10-year-old brother played badminton in the yard. During a downward swing, the aluminum shaft of his racket suddenly came loose from its wooden handle, the lawsuit says.
The metal piece shot through the air, hit Lucy in the head and pierced her skull, penetrating deep into her brain. She died four days later.
More than two years after the fatal accident, Lucy’s family is taking legal action against Massachusetts-based Franklin Sports, arguing the racket was dangerously defective and that a simple safeguard could have stopped the shaft from turning into a projectile.
The wrongful death complaint, filed Monday in York County, Maine, claims the racket’s handle and metal stem were not properly secured.
According to the lawsuit, the adhesive holding the parts together was defective, and the product lacked a secondary restraint that would have kept the shaft in place if that bond failed.
The complaint also alleges Franklin Sports did not provide adequate warnings to consumers that the metal stem could detach during normal use.
Lucy Morgan, 6, died four days after the aluminum shaft of a badminton racket broke free from its handle and pierced her skull during a family vacation in Maine in June 2024
Lucy’s father Jesse Morgan and her siblings gathered at her hospital bedside after doctors warned the family that the six-year-old had suffered catastrophic brain injuries
‘This case represents a parent’s worst nightmare,’ the family’s attorney, Charles P Hehmeyer of Berman & Simmons, said.
‘The Morgan family was enjoying an idyllic summer vacation here in Maine when they lost Lucy due to what we allege was a dangerous and defective piece of sports equipment.
‘We are committed to obtaining justice for Lucy by holding Franklin Sports accountable.’
Lucy had traveled to Maine with her parents, Jesse and Bethany Morgan, and siblings Silas, Shiloh and Atticus.
The family was staying at a cottage on North Shore Drive in Limerick, where the badminton set had been provided with the rental, according to the complaint.
They were enjoying their final full day of vacation when the children decided to play outside while their parents relaxed nearby.
According to Maine State Police, Lucy suffered an ‘unintentional injury from her 10-year-old brother.’
Investigators determined that the aluminum shaft had dislodged from its wooden handle and struck Lucy in the head.
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Lucy was playing badminton with her 10-year-old brother when the racket’s aluminum shaft became dislodged from its wooden handle and struck her in the head
Lucy was vacationing with her parents, Jesse and Bethany Morgan, and her three siblings in Limerick, Maine, when the freak badminton accident occurred
Lucy was still breathing but unresponsive when emergency crews rushed her to a local hospital before she was airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
She was taken directly into surgery, where doctors removed part of her skull to relieve pressure caused by the catastrophic injury.
During the operation, Lucy flatlined.
Doctors managed to revive her, but her father later said the racket shaft had penetrated deeply into her brain and caused immediate arterial bleeding.
Lucy had lost brain function and could no longer breathe on her own.
Doctors warned the family that their daughter had only ‘a very slim chance’ of recovery.
Lucy ultimately died at around 4am on June 5, leaving her family to return to New Jersey without her.
Her father later described repeatedly looking into the rearview mirror during the roughly 350-mile journey home and wishing he could see Lucy sitting there eating chicken nuggets after the family stopped at Wendy’s – where, for the first time, they had ordered food for only five.
The tragedy was particularly devastating for Lucy’s siblings.
Jesse wrote that Silas, then 10, Shiloh, then eight, and Atticus, then four, were struggling to comprehend what had happened and were ‘blaming themselves and taking it hard.’
Silas, whose racket had accidentally caused his sister’s fatal injury, asked his parents ‘how we could ever be happy again,’ according to a blog post by his father.
When the family finally reached their New Jersey home, Jesse said they struggled even to walk through the front door.
‘We just sat on the front steps for a while crying until I finally mustered up the courage to open the door,’ he wrote.
‘We again collapsed in a pile on the kitchen floor crying harder as a family than we ever have.’
The Daily Mail contacted Franklin Sports for comment.
