Lawsuit: Montana family says they got carbon monoxide poisoning from Santa Fe vacation rental

Mar. 28—A Montana family is suing the owners of a downtown Santa Fe vacation rental, saying they and their two children suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while staying at the property in 2021.

Husband and wife Emily Wrotny and Gary Wrotny say in a civil suit filed recently in state District Court they booked a weeklong stay at the Palace Avenue property on Airbnb as a break during a cross-country trip while moving from North Carolina to Montana.

"The property was beautiful on the outside, recently remodeled, and located in a charming part of Santa Fe," according to their lawsuit.

However, it says, "the boiler was in a dangerous state of disrepair, inconspicuously spewing [carbon monoxide] throughout the house during the family's stay," and the property had no carbon monoxide alarm.

The family became ill, the lawsuit says, and one of their children, an infant, had to be taken to the hospital for treatment and suffered permanent brain injury. The rest of the family also suffered serious and permanent injuries — including cognitive, emotional and physical problems — according to the lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

When the Wrotneys arrived around 5 p.m. March 22, 2021, they noticed a strong smell in the back of the house which they assumed was cigarette smoke, so they opened a window. The next morning they experienced headaches and felt drowsy and assumed their symptoms were from "traveling and altitude," the suit says.

They messaged the property manager who, the lawsuit says, came to the property and opened the door to the boiler, saying: "Yep, it's in there — sometimes it smells weird," and dropped off an air purifier.

Around 10 p.m., the lawsuit says, Emily Wrotny went to give their baby a bottle and discovered the infant "unresponsive and covered in vomit."

The baby regained consciousness and "began vomiting uncontrollably again," the complaint says.

The family took the baby to the hospital and returned to the vacation rental the next morning after the child was discharged. Emily Wrotny asked the property manager — who is also a defendant in the lawsuit — to "call the heat" guy, the complaint says, explaining the trip to the hospital and their continued symptoms. The property manager said she'd send someone to check it out the next day.

The family's symptoms "reappeared" the next morning, the lawsuit says. When they called Airbnb seeking guidance, they received a message saying the company had confirmed the issue might be carbon monoxide-related and it was an urgent matter that needed to handled by a specialized team, at which point they left the house.

The complaint names the property owners Albert Padilla and his wife, Deborah Padilla, as defendants, along with Keely Goodgame, who is identified in the complaint as the property manager.

Reached by phone Thursday, Deborah Padilla said there is nothing wrong with the boiler and she suspects the family may have suffered from altitude sickness.

"I can't figure out why there is a lawsuit," she said. "People try to get their money back for all types of reasons. I guess the Airbnb came out and said there is nothing there."

Padilla said she and her husband have rented the home, where they had lived 14 years, many times over the past 20 years without incident.

"We've had guests check in and out since then," she said. "There has never been a problem."

Goodgame declined to comment.

Jason Sena, the city of Santa Fe's short-term rental division supervisor, said in a phone interview Thursday that city inspectors check new short-term rentals for smoke detectors but not carbon monoxide detectors. However, he said, "a lot of the new smoke detectors are both."

Sena said owners of short-term rental properties must renew their permits each year, but the renewals don't require another inspection. He said the city only has one code inspector for all the short-term rentals in the city and primarily relies on the public to report code violations or unpermitted properties. He said the city's records show the permit for the Palace Avenue property in this case expired in 2022.