Legal News

On the Burned Man at Burning Man

By Ashby Jones

We’ve never been to the Burning Man festival — the annual weeklong carnival-like party in the Nevada desert. (We love the concept in theory, but don’t think we’d be very good at the things people do at Burning Man, like, say, building floats out of PVC piping, and Christmas lights; jumping rope with El-Wire, etc.)

That said, if we ever go, we’ll be armed with the following knowledge: if we burn ourselves getting too close to the actual Burning Man (pictured) and wind up a, well, burned man, a lawsuit might be tough to win.

Such was the lesson learned on Tuesday by Anthony Beninati, a Los Angeles-area man, who sued the promoter of the festival for damages sustained when he fell in the big Burning Man pyre. Click here for the article, from the San Francisco Chronicle.

We imagine the recounting of the story might rile up the tort-reformers. We’ll see. In any event, according to the article:

A college-educated real estate manager, [Beninati] was making his third visit to the weeklong festival, which culminates with the incineration of a 60-foot wood sculpture.

Once the Burning Man topples, participants are invited to throw objects into the bonfire. Beninati planned to contribute a photo of a friend who was supposed to come with him but had recently died in a motorcycle accident.

He walked 7 to 10 feet into the burning embers, with flames on either side of him, threw in the photo, then took a few more steps forward, tripped and fell into the fire.

The trial court threw out Beninati’s case; a ruling that was upheld on Tuesday by a California appeals court.

“By continuing to walk into the fire, Beninati assumed the risk that he might trip and fall,” presiding Justice Ignazio Ruvolo said in the 3-0 ruling. “The risk of falling and being burned by the flames or hot ash was inherent, obvious and necessary to the event.”

Beninati’s lawyers were unavailable for comment.

LBers, let the commentary begin.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).