The surviving family members of a Nashville-area restaurateur are suing a dry ice maker and several other entities after the owner became locked in a walk-in cooler and died.

According to news sources, the incident stems from a scheduled power outage at the (now closed) restaurant.  The lawsuit claims that defendant Continental Carbonic Products recommended that the restaurant use dry ice in the cooler to prevent food from spoiling.  When the power was restored, restaurant owner Jay Luther went to check the cooler and the door slammed shut, locking him inside. The lawsuit and police investigation indicate that the latch on the cooler did not work. Luther pushed a panic button inside the cooler, alerting defendants ADS Security and Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD); upon finding the building locked, the security guard and MNPD officer attributed the alarm to the power outage and did not investigate further.

The suit seeks $10 million in damages from the dry ice maker for supplying a "defective and unreasonably dangerous" product and failure to provide material safety data and handling guide warnings for use of dry ice.  The other defendants, including the building's security providers, the maker of the cooler and MNPD are being sued for punitive and actual damages.

—Source: nashvillecitypaper.com