The children of Santa Barbara farmers John “Jay” and Kristen Ruskey are suing the owners of a Cambria home and the manufacturer of a water heater, alleging that carbon monoxide poisoning caused their parents’ deaths earlier this year.
The couple, who ran coffee and exotic-fruit farms, were discovered dead at a friends’ home 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 named in the case are homeowners Ben and Robin Korman and water-heater maker Navien Inc.
The complaint describes a disturbing chain of events in the hours before the couple died. Jay reportedly became violently ill, vomiting uncontrollably and losing control of his bowels, prompting the couple to call 911, according to the lawsuit.
According to the filing, the Ruskeys left their children at home on Feb. 7 while they attended a birthday celebration at the Kormans’ property in Cambria. The gathering drew approximately 50 to 60 people, and Jay and Kristen later stayed overnight in a guest bedroom.
The couple went to bed at about 2 a.m. on Feb. 8. The lawsuit alleges that the home’s water heater repeatedly switched on during the night to meet the demand created by the large number of guests.
Each time it operated, the complaint claims, the heater released carbon monoxide through a defective venting system into the laundry room and then into the adjoining guest bedroom.
The filing further alleges that the only smoke and carbon monoxide detector in or near the bedroom had been disconnected from its wiring and was not working.
It says the detector was already disconnected before the Ruskeys arrived and contends that the homeowners knew, or should have known through reasonable care, that it was inoperable.
“No alarm ever sounded,” the lawsuit states.
At approximately 4:34 a.m., Kristen called 911 because Jay was experiencing a severe medical crisis, according to the complaint.
The Santa Barbara Independent reported that Kristen told paramedics Jay was having a “bad trip” after consuming chocolate containing psychedelic mushrooms. Other partygoers reportedly heard him vomiting and screaming.
Paramedics recommended that he be taken to a hospital for “a higher level of care,” citing the full circumstances and his observed behavior, the outlet reported.
Jay declined medical treatment, however, and the paramedics left, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that Jay was vomiting, displaying seizure-like symptoms and had lost control of his bowels in bed — signs that can be associated with acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Because there was no functioning alarm, the lawsuit 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 filing also alleges that nobody tested the air in the laundry room or guest bedroom, turned off the water heater or aired out the contaminated areas.
Jay and Kristen eventually returned to bed, according to the complaint.
Between 9:30 and 10 a.m. the following morning, guests went to check on the couple 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.
Guests started CPR and placed another 911 call at around 10:20 a.m. Deputies from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, firefighters and paramedics arrived, but the couple could not be revived and were pronounced dead at the property, according to the filing.
A county coroner’s investigator examined the bodies at the scene and found no apparent injuries, the lawsuit says. Autopsies were conducted by a forensic pathologist 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 complaint states.
The California Post contacted Navien Inc. and the Kormans seeking comment.
The Ruskeys were well known in the area as the owners and founders of Good Land Organics, an exotic-fruit farm, and FRINJ Coffee.