Posted on 10/14/2015 7:50:31 AM PDT by JoeProBono
SAN FRANCISCO, - A $5 million lawsuit filed in San Francisco alleges a man taking a nap in a public park suffered a brain injury when a 16-pound pine cone landed on his head.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 4 in San Francisco federal court, alleges Washington state resident Sean Mace was napping under a tree in San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Oct. 12 of last year when a 16-pound seed pod, or pine cone, fell from a coniferous Araucaria bidwillii tree and landed on his head.
The Araucaria bidwillii, native to Australia and better known as a bunya pine or false monkey puzzle tree, can grow seed pods measuring up to 16 inches in diameter and weighing up to 40 pounds.
Mace was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where doctors conducted surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain from internal bleeding. The lawsuit says he needed a second surgery five days later.
"This guy has an irreversible brain injury and he's only in his mid-50s," Johnson told the San Francisco Chronicle. "He's had two surgeries already and he is going to need a third."
Court papers state Mace suffered "traumatic brain injury, with severe and likely irreversible cognitive deficits."
The lawsuit, which names the U.S. government, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, says there were no signs posted to warn visitors about the possibility of dangerous falling pine cones and no fences to keep park-goers away from dangerous areas.
The suit says warning signs and orange fences were installed after Mace's injury.
Johnson said he was unable to find a similar incident in researching the case.
"I've not found another case that is factually similar," Johnson told KNTV. "This is relatively novel."
I guess if a bird dumps on someone’s head or ants bite them they have a case...
Act of God.
So ... California, that won't let you bring a pansy in at the border that you got on Mother's Day at church allows widow makers to grow wherever and no police tape nor warning ?
I would prefer less substantial precipitation.
The idiot hopped the fence, said "hold m'beer" and fell asleep
brilliant
The damn tree is probably beyond its' time...and some idiotic tree hugger stopped it from being taken down.
I started to read that and thought somebody was smoking crack. A 16 pound pine cone?!? Come on!
Learn something new every day!
“The Araucaria bidwillii, native to Australia “ More damage from ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!
"I think the whole thing's ridiculous!
Trees aren't responsible for the things they bear hitting people!"
“A tourist visiting the Bay Area for Fleet Week last year was doing nothing more than reading and napping under a tree in a federal waterfront park in San Francisco when a 16-pound pine cone fell on him and crushed his skull, his lawyer said Monday.
Now, Sean Mace, a U.S. Navy veteran, is suing the U.S. government, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where he was injured for $5 million in the hopes of changing policies so that no one else falls victim to the same type of bizarre incident.
“This guy has an irreversible brain injury and he’s only in his mid-50s,” said Scott Johnson, a San Francisco attorney representing Mace in the lawsuit. “He’s had two surgeries already and he is going to need a third.”
Mace went to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park at the Fort Mason Center on Oct. 12, 2014, to find a spot to watch the Blue Angels air show. He found himself what he thought was a peaceful place to read and rest in the northeast corner of the park under a stand of coniferous Araucaria bidwillii trees, more commonly known as bunya pines or false monkey puzzle trees, according to the lawsuit filed Sept. 4 in San Francisco federal court.”
I just posted a site that shows a warning sign. I’m sure it would help in the lawsuit.
Obviously the pine tree is racist and a homophobe too.
Perhaps he should sue the enviornmentalists for saving that tree!
Nope.
When God has no place in your culture, you lose that defense.
In Hawaii, the cities trim coconuts off the trees.
Because stupid.
In Hawaii they regularly remove the coconuts from trees in the neighborhood I lived in so this type of thing wouldn’t happen.
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