Lawsuit settled in lawyer's death at Greensburg YMCA

Rich Cholodofsky, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·2 min read

Jun. 24—A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family members of a local attorney who was found dead in the sauna last year at the Greensburg YMCA has been settled.

According to court records, a Westmoreland County judge on June 7 approved the agreement to end the litigation that claimed the facility was responsible for the March 15, 2021, death of lawyer David Robinson, who also served as a YMCA board member.

The lawsuit claimed Robinson, 80, spent the night of March 14 and into the early morning hours of March 15 inside the sauna, where temperatures reached 112 degrees, and that he had no way exit the room. A maintenance worker discovered his body at 8:30 the next morning, the family said in court documents.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed. The parties signed off on a confidentiality agreement that barred participants from discussing the case.

Robinson family attorney Robert F. Daley could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

In the lawsuit, Daley wrote that Robinson was an active man who entered the Maple Avenue facility's sauna shortly before 6 p.m. March 14 and remained there when the YMCA closed for the day at 7 p.m. YMCA staffers failed to check to see if anyone remained in the sauna at closing time, according to the lawsuit.

The county coroner's office and Greensburg police said Robinson died from natural causes. A report from Greensburg police said investigators learned Robinson had "pacemaker surgery" several weeks before his death.

Attorney George Stewart, who represented the YMCA in the case, did not return a call seeking comment.

Stewart last year issued a statement defending the YMCA.

"We fully deny that (the YMCA) was negligent in any way, or any way the approximate cause of Dave's passing at the age of 80," Stewart said.

Accusations that the sauna could not be opened from the inside were not accurate, Stewart said last year.

Former YMCA Chief Executive George O'Brien originally was named as a defendant in the case but, according to court records, he was removed from the litigation this year.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .