New Jersey residents may have heard that a Las Vegas woman is suing Wayne Newton after the entertainer’s pet monkey allegedly attacked her daughter. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff is seeking a minimum of $15,000 in compensatory damages.
The incident was supposed to have taken place in October 2017 during a tour of the Casa de Shenandoah, a mansion of Wayne Newton’s that was sold to investors back in 2010 and made into a museum. This estate features gardens, exotic animals and a stable for the Las Vegas performer’s horses. The plaintiff and her daughter, who was 15 years old at the time, went on the tour upon invitation.
The daughter was allegedly bitten by the monkey without provocation although it is not clear what the extent of the injuries was. When the lawsuit was filed with the Nevada State Court on Aug. 7, 2019, Wayne Newton’s wife responded with a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal to the effect that the Newtons had severed ties with the business running the tours in July 2017, three months before the incident. She claims that the Newtons have no knowledge of what occurred on that October day.
This case illustrates the concept of premises liability, a concept most often invoked after slip-and-fall incidents. Anyone who is injured in an accident on someone else’s property may want to hire a lawyer who understands this concept. It comes down to showing that property owners have a duty of care to lawful entrants, that they failed in this duty and that this failure led to the injury. For example, a property owner may have neglected to enforce pool safety rules or warn about a wet floor. After building the case up, a lawyer may strive for a settlement.