Former Connecticut hedge fund exec sues in son's drowning

BOSTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A former top hedge fund industry executive is suing the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, a local pool company and others, alleging their negligence led to the drowning death of his 6-year-old son in the family's pool last summer.

Brian Cohn, who retired as president from $15 billion hedge fund SAC Capital this month, claims the pool failed to meet the state of Connecticut's safety regulations when the drain failed to shut down automatically after his son's arm was caught.

The family charges that entrapment in pool drains is a national problem and that the town of Greenwich, where many wealthy hedge fund managers live, did not properly inspect blueprints for the pool before it was built by Shoreline Pools. The town, pool company and others are named as defendants in the suit that was filed in Stamford Superior Court on Monday.

According to the lawsuit, 6-year-old Zachary Cohn was pulled under water and eventually drowned after his arm was caught in a powerful drain last July. The suction was so strong that his father and another adult, who jumped into the pool to rescue the child, could not free him until after power was shut off to the entire house.

The boy's mother could not immediately find the switch to the swimming pool's suction pump and raced to the main circuit breaker to shut off all power to the house, the suit says.

Lawyers for the family said pool drains can be very dangerous and reported that since 1985 at least 48 people have died and more suffered serious injuries after becoming stuck.

The family is seeking more than $15,000 in damages from Shoreline Pools, Hayward Industries, which makes pool pumps, property company Aberdeen Properties and the town of Greenwich plus others.

The suit alleges that the pool and spa at the Cohn's Greenwich home contained seven serious code violations that could have each led to fatal entrapments. It also charges that the pool company had a history of violating building code requirements and claims the town did not inspect the plans properly before issuing a permit to build the pool.

No one was able to comment about the matter at the pool company or the town.

"Nothing will ever bring our son back, but we hope that through these legal proceedings other families will be spared the horrible tragedy we have suffered," the family said in a statement released by their lawyers. They plan to donate any proceeds from the suit to the Zach Foundation for Children's Safety, which the family launched in its son's honor. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, editing by Maureen Bavdek)