“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.”
One way to look at it is by the "reasonable man" method. A reasonable man might expect the possibility of lightning during a storm. But would a reasonable man be expected to guard against 16-pound (!) pine cones?
When I read the title to this post, I thought it was about another frivolous lawsuit. But now I think this guy just might have a case.
The kind that just got 1/3 plus expenses of a $5M settlement...
Any lawyer, ask John Edwards.
I disagree.
Lightning and the wind are 100% natural and acts of God.
Some ignorant clueless human idiot actually imported the damned things.