Editor’s Note: This story was published by Crain’s Detroit Business.
It’s been close to two years since Emma Davidson died.
The three-year-old had been playing one early April evening in 2021 at a Cape May, N.J. campground when she stepped on an unsecured underground septic tank lid and dropped 10 feet or so into the sewage-filled pit, ultimately succumbing to her injuries after she was removed — perhaps as much as five minutes after falling in, according to local reports from the time.
Now the property’s owner, Southfield-based Sun Communities Inc., the massive REIT run by Gary Shiffman, is suing one of its insurers, Navigators Insurance Co., saying the Stamford, Conn.-based company failed to contribute to a mediated monetary settlement with the toddler’s family after they sued Sun.
The complaint against Navigators filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan last week says Navigators “failed and refused to meaningfully participate in the (mediation) proceeding, failed and refused to give meaningful consideration to (Sun’s) settlement proposals and ultimately refused to contribute any amount to the settlement reached at the mediation… ”
