Woman attacked by chimpanzee files personal injury lawsuit
If someone is injured on another person’s property, the property owner may be held responsible for premises liability. A wide variety of injuries can result from a property owner’s negligence, including injuries from an animal attack.
One example of such an injury occurred when a 58-year-old woman was attacked by her friend’s “pet” chimpanzee. The 200-pound wild animal lived in a residential home. The woman says she was always concerned that the animal would attack an innocent victim, but she never thought it would be herself.
The woman suffered extensive physical injuries in the animal attack. She was left blinded, and she has undergone several surgeries, including a face transplant, as well as an unsuccessful hand transplant. The transplanted hands had to be removed because they caused a life-threatening circulation problem. She is still hoping to have another hand transplant surgery someday. But this type of surgery is extremely expensive and will require extensive medical care.
Though she continues to recover from her catastrophic injuries, the victim still has a long road of rehabilitation ahead of her. In order to help her pay for the second hand transplant, as well as to compensate her for her past medical bills and extreme pain and suffering, she has filed a personal injury lawsuit.
She is hoping that the state of Connecticut, where the wild animal was located, will be held responsible for the attack because she says the state was well aware that the dangerous animal lived in the neighborhood and was prone to getting loose. In fact, before the animal attacked this woman it had previously escaped, but authorities did not take action until it was too late.
Owners of animals are responsible to ensure that they do not harm others. Hopefully, this type of lawsuit will make owners of dangerous, wild animals, along with states and governing bodies such as the City of New York, realize the dangers of caring for such an animal in a residential area.
Source: New York Daily News, “Charla Nash, woman mauled by Chimpanzee, starts process to sue Connecticut for 150 million,” Nina Mandell, Feb. 29, 2012
