[SML] Venue/Landlord pay millions for Circus Rigging error

Fri Jan 8 23:40:39 UTC 2021

By the way, the acrobats may not end up getting a dime.

Feld should have stepped in to take the place of the PCC in the lawsuit.
The WC thing would have then blocked the case.  Watch to see, I bet Feld
makes a motion along these lines.

On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 6:37 PM Steven Santos <steven at simplycircus.com>
wrote:

> A big part of this is the contract terms.   According to some media
> reports, the PCC's contract made them responsible for ALL rigging.
>
> Definitions matter when it comes to the law.   Defining who is
> responsible for what really matters.
>
> If it were to have been properly defined in the contract, the outcome
> would likely have been far different.
>
> Now, if it were properly defined, and then local crew got in the middle of
> it, you would have a whole other set of issues.
>
> Rigging: The Venue is responsible for all attachments made directly to the
> buildings structure.  This includes the attachment of the clients chain
> hoist(s) to the building structure and operation of the chain hoists.  The
> tour shall utilize the Venue's riggers for the assembly and raising of all
> truss structures before the show.  The tour is responsible for all human
> rigging (acrobatic rigging, aerial rigging, performer flying and similar
> rigging) from the truss down.
>
> That kind of language would have been a game changer.
>
> Unless every venue is going to have an aerial rigger in every time they
> have a circus type show in.
>
> On Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 8:50 PM Kristi R-C via Stagecraft <
> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>
>> One of the reason Workmans' Comp insurance exists is it protects the
>> employer from being sued, then losing and going out of business which
>> results in the loss of additional jobs. The WC claim will take care of the
>> health care and partial income needs to "make the worker whole." and having
>> that as a fairly automatic thing benefits both worker  - since the bills
>> are covered fairly quickly  - and the employer who gets to stay in
>> business.
>>
>> Assuming Feld has WC insurance on their employees - and they more than
>> likely do as it's a requirement in most states - they can't be directly
>> sued by the workers for their injuries received on the job.
>>
>> Now... the worker's families could sue for "loss of consortium" or any of
>> a number of similar claims. The venue is going after Feld.
>>
>> The lesson for all of us is - if you see something that doesn't look
>> right, say something and don't let anything go in the air you're not
>> willing to be held liable for.
>>
>> If you are the hosting venue/organization, ensure you do your due
>> diligence when to comes to safety - even when it's a "circus act that takes
>> care of them selves" as we are often told.
>>
>> And if you're not certain, we've got lots of folks who know both Circus
>> and ETCP rigging now - ASK!
>>
>> Kristi R-C
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Conner via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net>
>> To: Stagecraft Mailing List <stagecraft at theatrical.net>
>> Cc: Bill Conner <billconnerastc at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 12:08 pm
>> Subject: Re: [SML] Venue/Landlord pay millions for Circus Rigging error
>>
>> Interesting that the lawyers for this case were also leads on station
>> fire.  By their website, their two largest settlements, by significant
>> amounts.
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 27, 2020, 12:56 PM Bill Conner <billconnerastc at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Interesting but not surprising. Very likely the civic center and its
>> management had much deeper pockets - more insurance - than Feld.  Seems
>> like this may lead to more confrontations between venues and tours, since
>> it seems to hold the venue responsible for the tour's work.  That assumes
>> tours will resume someday.
>>
>> Lou, thanks for posting this.
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 7:36 PM Lou Poppler via Stagecraft <
>> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/circus-acrobats-injured-settlement.html
>>
>> In Rhode Island in 2014, at a Feld "Ringling Bros" show, eight acrobats
>> fell
>> after a rigging failure.  (IIRC the entire rigged assembly supporting the
>> acrobats was suspended from a single carabiner which was cocked slightly
>> so that the load was not oriented along the long axis.)
>>
>> Later that year, OSHA issued a $7,000 fine — “the maximum fine allowed by
>> law”
>> — to Feld Entertainment.  Last Monday, lawyers for the acrobats settled
>> a lawsuit with the owner and operator of the arena where the performance
>> took
>> place, for $52.5 million (Rhode Island Convention Center, and SMG).
>>
>> The acrobats' lawyer said: "There are safety standards and safety
>> features
>> that were supposed to be in place for every event, no matter whether it’s
>> the circus, or whether you’re dealing with, you know, college
>> basketball,”
>> Mr. Mandell said. “Those were not used, they were not utilized for this
>> performance, and so that is where our claims against the arena derived
>> from.”
>>
>> My interest in all this, as a retired local crew high rigger (or sometimes
>> lead local rigger) is to suggest that we might need to be more assertive
>> about complaining, when we see the touring riggers or show management
>> rigging something in a questionable manner.
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
>> Stagecraft mailing list
>> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
>> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
>> Stagecraft mailing list
>> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
>> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
>> Stagecraft mailing list
>> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
>> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20210108/efa2fd1d/attachment.html>