The family of a 38-year-old Milford man who died less than an hour after he joined a local fitness center has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the gym, in a case that will boil down to the waiver signed.

“He did sign a waiver, so we will have to get over that hurdle. But it’s a fairly weak waiver. The law in Connecticut is fairly unfavorable to these kinds of waivers. In this state, it’s very difficult to waive ordinary negligence, and the kind of negligence that the victim would not necessarily anticipate. We think the waiver will probably be declared invalid based on their negligence,” said plaintiffs counsel Paul Iannaccone, a partner with RisCassi & Davis in Hartford.