Family sues over woman's fatal sinkhole fall while searching for lost cat
The family of a grandmother who died after falling into a sinkhole in Westmoreland County while searching for her missing pet is suing U.S. Steel and a restaurant owner.
Elizabeth Pollard fell 30 feet to her death in a sinkhole in Unity Township while looking for her cat, Pepper, in December 2024. The sinkhole led to a mine abandoned in the 1950s.
For four days, crews dug and searched for her remains in the area behind Monday's Union Restaurant. Now, about a year and a half later, Pollard's husband filed a lawsuit through their attorney, Mark Malone, with Morgan and Morgan.
"This shouldn't have happened, and hopefully it never happens again," Malone said. "This is a family now without a wife, without a mom, without a grandmother."
Named in the lawsuit are Paul Iannuzzo, who owns Monday's Union Restaurant, and U.S. Steel, which owns the abandoned mine, along with unknown parties that the company may have worked with.
"When you look at the history of this mine, how long it was mined for, the fact that they closed it in the '50s, and maybe have never even checked on it since, it's a dangerous condition for the entire community," Malone said.
The family is claiming negligence and wrongful death on the part of the defendants for not maintaining and inspecting the mine, remediating any hazardous conditions, and warning others of those dangers. The complaint said they should have known the risk that where she fell "was a highly susceptible area of collapse due to the years of prior mining."
Malone said the family knows they can't go back in time. They just want accountability.
"The family is just looking for justice, and they deserve it because Elizabeth Pollard should be here with us today," Malone said.
In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for U.S. Steel told KDKA, "We are reviewing the lawsuit at this time." The owner of the restaurant had no comment on Thursday.
