A civil lawsuit filed in Cumberland County, Maine, Superior Court is putting renewed attention on the responsibilities pool operators carry when they offer swimming pools to the public. A January 8, 2026, complaint, brought by multiple families on behalf of themselves and their children, centers on a March 2023 outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections linked to a hotel pool in Brunswick, Maine.
At least 23 people, most of them children, were sickened after swimming in the pool, according to state and federal health officials. The plaintiffs allege the illnesses were the predictable result of longstanding safety violations that went uncorrected for more than a year.
The lawsuit names Giri Hotel Management, LLC and Giri Brunswick, LLC as defendants and claims the companies allowed guests to continue using the pool despite repeated inspection failures and warnings from state regulators. The suit alleges negligence and negligent maintenance of the property, arguing that the defendants “continued to allow guests, their families, children, and the public to use the pool” even though it had been cited for critical violations and posed “a serious health hazard to the public.”
According to the complaint, a state pool inspector cited the hotel in January 2022 for four critical violations and four non-critical violations. Under Maine rules, critical violations must be corrected within 10 days. The lawsuit says that by March 2023, many of those violations had still not been fixed. During that time, the pool remained open and available to hotel guests and, at times, the broader public.
From March 3 through March 5, 2023, families staying at the hotel used the pool. Soon after, children and adults began experiencing painful rashes, ear infections, and other symptoms. The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with the U.S. CDC, later confirmed an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections tied to the pool. Investigators concluded the pool was the source of the illnesses and ordered it closed as an imminent health hazard.
A CDC report on the outbreak found that most people who swam during the affected weekend became ill, while those who did not swim did not get sick. The report also noted that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is “readily inactivated by disinfectants
