{"id":30777,"date":"2025-10-30T21:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30777\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:00:15","slug":"grandfather-allegedly-dies-in-scalding-hotel-shower-family-files-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30777\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandfather allegedly dies in scalding hotel shower, family files lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A Marine veteran and grandfather has died after being scalded by hot water in a California <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/general\/hotels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">hotel shower<\/a>, a lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The Oct. 15 wrongful death lawsuit said the water reached 134 to 136 degrees Fahrenheit as Terril Johnson showered at the Fairfield by Marriott Inn &amp; Suites San Jose Airport, according to the filing obtained by Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p>The water temperature was said to be above the state\u2019s 120-degree limit for individual showers, resulting in burns covering more than 33% of Johnson\u2019s body, according to the medical examiner&#8217;s report.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, 72, had traveled from Los Angeles to San Jose on May 22 to attend his granddaughter\u2019s college graduation at San Jose State University.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/manager-famed-strip-club-gunned-down-near-home-blue-city-police-hunt-killer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MANAGER OF FAMED STRIP CLUB GUNNED DOWN NEAR HOME IN BLUE CITY AS POLICE HUNT FOR KILLER<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/marine-grandpa-scalding-shower-fox-news-001.jpg\" alt=\"Johnson Family\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Terril Johnson, 72, had traveled from Los Angeles to San Jose, California, on May 22 to attend his granddaughter\u2019s college graduation at San Jose State University. (Johnson Family)<\/p>\n<p>After a six-hour drive, he entered the hotel shower, and his grandson reportedly found him unconscious and partially submerged.<\/p>\n<p>The water was allegedly so hot that family members could not pull him out without burning themselves.<\/p>\n<p>During attempts at CPR, they &#8220;were forced to watch in horror as his skin peeled away from his body,&#8221; the filing states.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/blue-city-rail-station-killing-linked-same-suspect-eyed-second-transit-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">BLUE CITY RAIL STATION KILLING LINKED TO SAME SUSPECT EYED IN SECOND TRANSIT ATTACK<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/grandpa-burned-shower-marriott.jpg\" alt=\"Fairfield by Marriott San Jose\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Terril Johnson was visiting San Jose for his granddaughter&#8217;s college graduation. <\/p>\n<p>The Santa Clara County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/medical-examiner-details-skull-fractures-karen-read-murder-trial-testimony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">medical examiner<\/a> ruled Johnson\u2019s cause of death as severe scalding, with the suit alleging that Johnson was &#8220;effectively boiled alive.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Family members, including Johnson\u2019s son, daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters, witnessed the incident and are included in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/entertainment\/events\/in-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">court documents.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was not a freak accident,&#8221; the suit claims. &#8220;It was the direct result of Defendant\u2019s gross negligence and failure to meet even basic safety obligations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/midwest\/indiana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Indiana native<\/a>, served in Vietnam with the Marines before moving to California.<\/p>\n<p>He retired as a senior lead technician at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority and had been married to his high school sweetheart for 54 years. He is survived by two children and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/elderly-women-rescued-from-hot-tub-remote-kentucky-cabin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ELDERLY WOMEN RESCUED FROM HOT TUB AT REMOTE KENTUCKY CABIN<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fairfield-inn-marriott-san-jose-ca-fox-news-001.jpg\" alt=\"Fairfield by Marriott Inn &amp; Suites San Jose Airport\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit contends the hotel failed to maintain safe water temperatures in violation of California plumbing codes. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/executive\/law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Attorney Paul Traina<\/a>, representing the Johnson family, said it is unclear exactly how long Johnson was exposed to the scalding water, but said it had been only &#8220;a short time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit contends the hotel failed to maintain safe water temperatures in violation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/west\/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">California plumbing codes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital has reached out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/seattle-hotel-owner-sues-city-claims-homeless-shelter-left-property-damaged-contaminated\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Marriott Americas <\/a>for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A Marine veteran and grandfather has died after being scalded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1570,4731,6347],"class_list":["post-30777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-health","tag-hotels","tag-travel-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}