The children of renowned Santa Barbara farmers John “Jay” and Kristen Ruskey are suing the owners of a Cambria home and a water-heater manufacturer, alleging that carbon monoxide poisoning caused their parents’ deaths earlier this year.
The couple, known for growing coffee and exotic fruit, were found dead at the home of friends on Feb. 8, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
The lawsuit was filed by the Ruskeys’ children: Kasurina, who was 19 at the time, and 16-year-old twins Aiden and Sean. The defendants are homeowners Ben and Robin Korman and water-heater maker Navien Inc.
The complaint describes the disturbing events before the couple died. Hours earlier, Jay allegedly began vomiting uncontrollably and lost control of his bowels, prompting the couple to call 911.
According to the lawsuit, the Ruskeys left their children at home on Feb. 7 while they attended a birthday party hosted by the Kormans at their Cambria residence. Between 50 and 60 people attended, and Jay and Kristen later stayed overnight in a guest bedroom.
The couple went to sleep at about 2 a.m. on Feb. 8, the lawsuit says. It alleges that the home’s water heater repeatedly switched on during the night to meet demand from the crowded house.
Each time it operated, the complaint alleges, the water heater “discharged carbon monoxide through the failed Subject Venting System into the Laundry Room and, through the connecting door, into the Guest Bedroom.”
The only smoke and carbon monoxide detector in or near the bedroom “had been disconnected from its electrical wiring and was inoperable,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that the detector had been disconnected before the Ruskeys arrived and that the Kormans “knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that it was disconnected.”
“No alarm ever sounded,” the lawsuit states.
At approximately 4:34 a.m., Kristen called 911 because Jay was experiencing a medical emergency, according to the complaint.
The Santa Barbara Independent reported that Kristen told responding paramedics Jay was “having a bad trip” after eating chocolate containing psychedelic mushrooms. Other party guests said they heard him vomiting and screaming.
Paramedics advised Jay to go to a hospital for “a higher level of care,” citing “the totality of the circumstances and the decedent’s observed behavior,” the outlet reported.
Jay declined medical treatment, however, and the paramedics left.
The lawsuit alleges that Jay was vomiting, showing seizure-like symptoms and had lost control of his bowels while in bed — all conditions the complaint identifies as possible signs of acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Because there was no functioning alarm, the suit claims, “neither the responding personnel nor the Korman Defendants nor anyone else at the Subject Property identified carbon monoxide as the cause of Jay’s symptoms.”
The complaint further alleges that no one tested the air in the guest bedroom or laundry room, turned off the water heater or aired out the areas.
The couple then returned to bed, according to the lawsuit.
Between 9:30 and 10 a.m. the next day, guests checked on Jay and Kristen and found them in separate areas of the home.
“They [the guests] found Kristen lying unresponsive on the floor of the Laundry Room, inside the door connecting it to the Guest Bedroom. They found Jay in the bed in the Guest Bedroom, unresponsive, pulseless, and not breathing,” the lawsuit says.
The guests started CPR and called 911 again at about 10:20 a.m. San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and paramedics arrived, but the couple could not be revived and were pronounced dead at the property, according to the complaint.
A county coroner’s investigator examined the bodies at the scene and found no apparent injuries, the lawsuit says. A forensic pathologist performed autopsies on Feb. 12.
“In each of them, he found cerebral edema, pulmonary congestion, and cherry-pink lividity, the hallmark findings of carbon monoxide poisoning,” the suit states.
The California Post contacted Navien Inc. and the Kormans for comment.
Jay and Kristen Ruskey were well known in the area as the founders of Good Land Organics, an exotic-fruit farm, and FRINJ Coffee, their coffee business.
