A Westmoreland County family is taking U.S. Steel and a local restaurant owner to court after a 64-year-old grandmother died when the ground collapsed beneath her as she looked for a missing cat behind a Unity Township eatery in December 2024. The wrongful-death suit, filed this week in Westmoreland County court, accuses the companies of failing to maintain or warn about land sitting over an abandoned mine that the complaint describes as prone to collapse.
According to WPXI, Kenneth Pollard, administrator of Elizabeth Pollard’s estate, filed the wrongful-death claim in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County. The lawsuit names U.S. Steel as the owner of the abandoned mine and Monday’s Union Restaurant as the surface property owner, and it was filed by attorneys with Morgan & Morgan, the outlet reports.
What the suit alleges
The complaint says the spot where Pollard fell “was a highly susceptible area of collapse due to the years of prior mining” and argues that neither the mine owner nor the property owner acted on that danger, WTAE reports. The filing claims U.S. Steel and the restaurant had a duty to inspect the property, warn people, or secure the area, and that their alleged negligence resulted in a death that could have been avoided. Monday’s Union Restaurant is named as a necessary party because it owns and uses the surface property, according to the suit.
How Pollard went missing
Authorities say Pollard had pulled over behind Monday’s Union Restaurant in December 2024 while searching for her cat, then stepped out of her vehicle and into an opening that dropped into an abandoned coal mine, CBS Pittsburgh reported. Crews recovered her body after a multi-day search. Earlier coverage said the shaft was roughly 20 to 30 feet deep and that Pollard suffered severe blunt-force injuries. The recovery effort brought in state teams and heavy equipment because of concerns about unstable mine workings under the site.
State response and stabilization
Following the recovery, the state Department of Environmental Protection moved to stabilize the abandoned mine. The agency pumped nearly 3,400 cubic yards of grout into the workings beneath the area, more than 68,000 gallons in total, at an estimated cost of over $500,000, WPXI reported in January. Crews drilled multiple boreholes across the affected zone to inject the grout, a step the DEP says helps reduce the risk of future subsidence. Officials have said the emergency work was paid from DEP funds that are set aside for mine incidents.
Family's message and next steps
The Pollard family’s attorneys say they are seeking accountability as well as damages. “Elizabeth Pollard should still be alive,” Morgan & Morgan attorney Mark Malone told CBS Pittsburgh, urging companies to take long-abandoned mines more seriously. A U.S. Steel spokesperson told the station the company is reviewing the lawsuit, and the restaurant owner declined to comment.
Legal implications
The filing is a wrongful-death action brought by the representative of Pollard’s estate. In Pennsylvania, wrongful-death and survival actions are creatures of statute and are typically heard in a county Court of Common Pleas. Under the state’s Wrongful Death Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301, survivors may seek damages when a death results from another party’s wrongful act or negligence, and an estate representative may also bring related survival claims on behalf of the decedent’s estate. The statutory framework is set out in 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301.
Background and local coverage
The search and recovery operation in December 2024 drew intense local attention at the time. Earlier coverage of the incident can be found in Missing Woman Sinkhole Search. The new lawsuit asks a Westmoreland County judge and jury to decide both the scope of any damages and whether the circumstances call for stronger monitoring or remediation of long-abandoned mine workings to protect nearby residents. The case now proceeds on the civil docket in Westmoreland County as the parties prepare their filings and responses.
