The family of a grandmother who fell into a sinkhole in Unity Township and died is suing the property owners.
Rescue crews recovered the body of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard, more than three days after she fell into a roughly 20-foot-deep sinkhole while looking for her cat in December 2024.
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The sinkhole was connected to an abandoned mine structure, located near Monday’s Union Restaurant.
On Wednesday, Kenneth Pollard, the administrator of Elizabeth Pollard’s estate, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County.
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The lawsuit alleges that the mine’s owner, U.S. Steel, and the property owner, Monday’s Union Restaurant, were responsible for maintaining the area and keeping it safe.
The plaintiffs allege that the place where Elizabeth Pollard fell was likely to collapse due to prior mining, but the defendants didn’t appropriately address the risk.
“Mainly, my client doesn’t want this to happen to any other family,” said Mark Malone, attorney at Morgan & Morgan.
That, Malone said, is the driving factor in the Pollard family filing a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Elizabeth Pollard.
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Pollard and her granddaughter were out looking for their cat when the incident happened. She parked at Monday’s Union Restaurant, got out of the car and fell into the sinkhole and into an abandoned mine shaft.
Her 5-year-old granddaughter was found in the parked car. She’d been alone in the cold for ten hours.
After nearly four days of searching, Pollard’s body was found 30 feet underground, and 12 feet away from the initial sinkhole.
“There’s still a determination to be made if this was a sudden death, or if she really suffered throughout when she was buried, so that’s something that we’ll definitely be looking into,” Malone said.
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“The restaurant being the land owner, and we don’t have the full details of their involvement, obviously, they didn’t have anything probably to do with the mine, but if there were any depressions in their property or if they noticed anything prior to this incident, that would be important for us to know,” Malone said.
The mine, Malone said, covers nearly 40 acres of land in that neighborhood.
“People shouldn’t have to walk around in fear, and it shouldn’t be something that’s reactive,” Malone said. “There needs to be a proactive approach in this area to make sure this area’s safe.”
Malone told Channel 11 they have investigated for the last few months, but felt this lawsuit was the best way to move forward.
“It’s been a few months, at least for us, investigating to the point we can. The lawsuit helps us open doors with subpoenas and things like that that we didn’t have before,” Malone said. “When tragedy like this strikes, it’s shocking, and when there’s no clear answers for a family, they go searching for it. I think this is the best way to make sure that Elizabeth’s death wasn’t just pointless, that something hopefully good can come out of this.”
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The lawsuit does not outline how much money in damages the family is seeking.
“That dollar amount comes down to the jury,” Malone said. “The community, the people from the community will make that decision for the Pollards.”
Malone said he’d like to see a jury trial within the next 18 months.
Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek called Monday’s Union Restaurant. They declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
Havranek also called and emailed U.S. Steel multiple times Thursday. They said they were reviewing the lawsuit, but have not yet commented further.
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