Chimp Case Plaintiffs Face Uphill Battle

Pressbox (Press Release) - According to veteran personal injury lawyer Michael Stratton of Stratton Faxon, plaintiffs in the sensationalized case involving a woman mauled by a pet chimpanzee would face some exceptional legal hurdles.

While the family of Charla Nash seeks to recover a large settlement from the state after being mauled by a pet chimpanzee in a much publicized Connecticut case, legal hurdles would appear to be insurmountable, not the least appears to be nearly a thousand years of legal precedent.

Under legal concepts dating to feudal England, it is hard to take a state to court, even in the face of clear errors.

Through its claims office, the state of Connecticut decides which requests to sue will be granted. Most are denied.

Michael Stratton can attest to this. The veteran personal-injury lawyer based in New Haven was successful once in suing the state, in a situation involving negligence on the part of park staffers, but was denied when he tried to sue the Department of Motor Vehicles on behalf of families of victims in the Avon Mountain crash. He is now taking another tack in the Avon case, and has requested to sue the Department of Transportation.

"Even when they screw up, they are generally immune," Stratton said of top state officials. "It's extremely difficult for a private person to hold government responsible for mismanagement."

Earlier this month, Stamford State's Attorney David Cohen said his decision not to prosecute chimp owner Sandra Herold was based in part on the DEP's failure both to convey its concerns about Travis to Herold and to enforce a law that would have required a permit for the chimp since 2004.


In fact, chimpanzees and other primates were added to the list of prohibited pets in Connecticut only after Nash was mauled and nearly killed, losing her hands and much of her face in the attack. However, the law since 2004 did require that chimp owners have a permit for their animals — an aspect of the statute that the agency did not enforce in the case of Travis.