Couple sue pool service, say error with chemicals killed koi

A Henderson couple are suing a pool cleaning company they said mistakenly sent chemicals into the koi pond at their home where the fish died in front of one of them.

The cost to replace the koi could be more than $100,000, according to the suit filed Tuesday in Clark County District Court.

Jennifer Braster, lawyer for plaintiffs Daria Hazuda and Paul Mcdonald, filed the legal action against Las Vegas-based Thompson Pool Service, alleging breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and negligence and asking for damages in excess of $15,000.

Hazuda and Mcdonald, who live in a four-bedroom, $1.5 million home in the Ascaya subdivision of Henderson, based on county records, allege in the suit that Thompson Pool was “expressly directed not to touch the koi pond or koi pond equipment.”

A spokesperson for Thompson Pool could not be reached for comment.

The couple’s pond and adjacent swimming pool are located in the interior of their two-story, 6,170-square-foot house on Boulderback Drive, based on the filing.

The plaintiffs said they brought two of the fish, each about 20 years old, with them when they moved to Nevada — they bought the house in 2017, county records show — and placed the fish into the pond.

They later acquired several other koi and added them to the pond, which flows through their courtyard and is “a central feature” of the residence, according to the suit.

They hired Thompson Pool on a one-year contract to clean their pool each month, but in July of this year, a service employee poured chemicals into the koi pond’s filter, the suit alleges.

The chemicals, which were not named in the filing, “burned” the gills of the fish and there was no way to save any of them, the suit said.

“Hazuda watched as the fish died in front of her,” the suit alleges. “Besides the mental and emotional anguish, the costs to replace the fish killed by Defendants will likely reach six-figures.”