The family of a 6-year-old New Jersey girl killed in a freak badminton accident has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Franklin Sports.
Lucy Morgan, 6, died in June 2024 after a defective badminton racket shaft broke free and pierced her skull during a family vacation in Limerick, Maine. Her family filed suit Monday against Franklin Sports, the Massachusetts-based manufacturer, alleging the racket had inadequate adhesive connecting its aluminum shaft to the wooden handle.
The lawsuit claims the company failed to warn consumers about the product’s dangers. Family attorney Charles P. Hehmeyer of Berman & Simmons in Maine is leading the legal action.
“We are committed to obtaining justice for Lucy by holding Franklin Sports accountable. We want to ensure these rackets are manufactured in a way where this type of tragedy never occurs again,” he told WCVB.
Hehmeyer added that a child in New York previously lost an eye to a Franklin badminton racket, but claimed the company “chose not to correct this with something as simple as a pin in the handle, which would cost pennies.”
The lawsuit seeks damages including funeral expenses, pecuniary loss, emotional distress, loss of comfort, society and companionship, and other available damages.
The six members of the Morgan family were eating lunch on their last full day at their vacation rental when Lucy’s father, Jesse Morgan, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, suddenly heard a scream from the front yard.
“Due to a freak accident with a racquet that broke on a downward swing, a sharp piece had entered Lucy’s skull while she was sitting on the sideline and caused catastrophic injury,” he shared in a heartbreaking blog entry titled “Calamity Strikes.”
Lucy was breathing but unresponsive as EMS rushed her to a local hospital before she was airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland, according to Maine State Police. Doctors were successful in reviving the young girl, but Lucy had lost all brain function and the full ability to breathe on her own. She later succumbed to her injuries.
In the viral moment that preceded the lawsuit, the “bubbly” daughter of a New Jersey pastor had been playing badminton with her 10-year-old brother during what had been an idyllic lakeside trip. The aluminum shaft of the racket came loose from its wooden handle, struck the girl in the head and pierced her skull. The racket came with a badminton set provided by the Limerick rental cottage. The horrific death was “a parent’s worst nightmare,” according to Hehmeyer.
Franklin Sports did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.