Chimp Owner Seeks to Limit Victim's Claim

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

An attorney representing the owner of a chimpanzee that mauled and blinded a woman is calling the attack a work-related incident and said her family's case should be treated like a workers' compensation claim.

The strategy, if successful, would severely limit potential damages in the case and insulate the chimp owner from personal liability.

The 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis went berserk in February when his owner, Sandra Herold, asked her friend and employee Charla Nash to help lure him back into her house in Stamford. The animal ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids, and she remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic.

Nash's family filed a $50 million lawsuit against Herold, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control "a wild animal with violent propensities."

But Herold's attorney, Robert Golger, says in recent court papers that Nash was working as an employee of Herold's tow truck company, Desire Me Motors, at the time of the attack. He argues that Travis was an integral part of the business, saying his picture was on the wrecker, he appeared at the garage daily and he attended numerous promotional events.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/14/national/main5384736.shtml?tag=stack

---

Remind me to never work for any idiots who keep a chimp as a pet. IMHO no way in hell was the victim acting in the capacity of an employee in this instance nor would I consider it part of her duties. She worked for a friggin' tow company not a zoo!

[Orrex]

1. $50 million is a good start

Why the fuck would anyone keep these wild animals as pets?

Sure, they look cute in commercials, but that's when they're four years old, for fuck's sake!

When mature, they're probably the second most dangerous primates on the goddamn planet.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. Because they never learn...

They form a close bond with the chimps when they're young, and could never imagine their babies turning against them. They don't realize that they are wild animals...not puppies. It's tragic.

[zonkers]

25. Sooo true. I know a girl who's hand was bit off by a chimp while she was working at a zoo.

[Newsjock]

2. Cheney?

Well, y'know, I see "chimp owner," and I just can't help myself.

[jgraz]

7. Bastard -- beat me to it.

:P

[villager]

9. well, me too. Though I think I was just gonna refer to the corporations, in general...

n/t

[KT2000]

3. Hope the judge issues an Orly

on the lawyer and fines him for wasting the courts time.

[AngryAmish]

21. Not likely.

[dugaresa]

4. Sandra Herold should be ashamed, in fact she should spend the rest of her life trying to make up for

the mess she made of Ms. Nash's life.

[troubledamerican]

14. Silly you. She's a Republican.

[AngryAmish]

22. It is not her. It is her insurance company.

[wordpix]

24. how about the mess she made of an innocent primate's life?

Keeping a chimp as a pet is a crime, IMO

[Bonobo]

6. It wasn't me! I'm a lover, not a fighter! nt

[Raschel]

8. "Desire Me Motors"? With the chimp's pic on the truck?

[Ian David]

10. ...

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. her face was ripped off - nose, lips, eyelids?

she is mutiliated terribly so.

She sounds like someone who might need a face transplant.

Very sad

[dysfunctional press]

16. not just her eyelids- her eyes. she's blinded for life.

and also has brain damage, iirc.

[pfitz59]

17. standard Chimpanzee fighting technique...

go for the eyes and then rip off the face and hands! Chimps are smart...

[cstanleytech]

12. Unless they can prove that as part of this persons job

entailed them to help with this chimp the judge should throw this bs defense out and fine the lawyers for even trying to claim it.

[Chulanowa]

15. Bingo.

Just because it happened in the workspace does not make it a "job-related injury"

Though I shudder for the poor man or woman who does receive work injury of this level, if this is truly the case.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. she was taken to a face transplant clinic

Charla Nash Admitted To Face Transplant Clinic After Travis The Chimp Attack

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/charla-nash-admitted-to-f_n_168356.html

[Regret My New Name]

18. hah! What an asshole.

[WriteDown]

19. Aren't chimps now considered people????

Charge the chimp and put him in jail.

[JonQ]

20. Bottom line: primates make terrible pets

do not keep them as such.

[NeoConsSuck]

26. Correct

Primates are not 'little humans'. They are wild animals. And if you own a wild animal, wild things are going to happen. Guaranteed.

[wordpix]

23. the issue to me here is that a chimp is allowed to be kept as a pet

Aren't there any endangered primate protection laws on this planet? :grr:

[KamaAina]

27. Meanwhile, the insurance scum are trying to claim a workplace murder was not "work-related".

The bottom line? Well, it's... the bottom line. In the California case, an African American woman was murdered in the store where she worked. The perp later told his psychiatrist he did it because she was black.

Bingo! She was murdered for "personal reasons", so Dollar Tree is off the hook 'cause it wasn't "work-related".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6775960&mesg_id=6775960

Now here in the chimp case, they're saying the incident was work-related, 'cause that's what'll get them off scot-free without paying one red cent! :grr: