These Lawsuits Are Sheer Monkey Business

02/19/08

Take a bunch of 10- and 11-year-olds, add cake and a birthday party, and just to spice things up, toss in a couple of live monkeys. Start the film. Fun for all!

At least, until the inevitable happens.

Five years ago, while Wyatt the capuchin monkey was hopping around at just such an event, grabbing Cheetos, he either bit or scratched a child. No one is quite sure, though it's not really important.

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No, what this continuing legal battle is about is the emotional distress caused by the incident — not to the child or the child's parents (who appear to have exercised at least some restraint in the lawsuit department) but between the monkey's owner and the local public health officer!

As best as I can gather, the timeline goes like this: the bitten or scratched child's mother sees the bite or scratch and has a pressing urge to call the doctor. Turns out there's a risk of rabies from monkey incidents. And rabies is life-threatening and will require a long, grueling series of shots — unless you determine that the monkey isn't rabid. How to do that? Run some tests on the monkey's brain! This, unfortunately for the monkey, is a rather fatal procedure.

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Enter our first litigant: local public health officer Ron Aryel, who ordered poor Wyatt to undergo the final procedure. Wyatt's owner, Debbie Barnett, strenuously objected. Apparently Wyatt was part of the family, she felt. In fact, according to Barnett, the death of Wyatt caused her so much stress that she and her husband separated, and she lost her job at his place as a veterinary technician.

Here's a juicy quote from Barnett about the whole thing: "I lost my marriage. I lost my profession. I lost my life. But the worst thing was we killed a nonhuman primate who was in the middle of this whole thing for nothing." One presumes that the mother of the affected child would disagree that it was for nothing.

Barnett filed a lawsuit against Aryel and others, which was eventually dismissed. But Aryel was a contract employee and was forced to hire his own attorney at his own expense.

Now for the denouement of our tale: Aryel is suing Barnett to recover the defense costs as well as damages to his reputation and the emotional distress he suffered. Or at least alleges to have suffered.

So one fateful day in 2003, Wyatt the monkey either scratched or bit a child. That single event has launched two lawsuits. The twist? Neither of those lawsuits involves the child or his parents! This is one legal drama that really is full of monkey business.