Country music stars Sugarland have been accused of "gross negligence and/or recklessness" by the family of a fan who was killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair in August (11).
The duo, comprised of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, have been named as defendants in a notice for a possible lawsuit over the catastrophe, which claimed a total of seven lives and left 40 injured.
The legal notice has been filed by relatives of 22-year-old victim Jennifer Haskell, who was one of 10,000 fans waiting for Sugarland's performance at the fair when a sudden storm brought the main stage crashing down. She and her best friend Alina BigJohny, who were both in the front row, died in the accident.
The accumulating number of lawsuits over the stage collapse is not surpising in today's litigious environment -- I think they're up to 21 tort claims as of today. And it's consistent with the current "blame everybody" movement that the people who promoted the concert would be sued along with the state. It's not just the bartender who overserved the customer or the retailer who sold the gun that we're going after now -- let's dip into the really deep pockets of the liquor and gun manufacurers.
Even given all of that, it seems like an opportunistic stretch to put any blame on the act that was to have performed. Sugarland was "negligent" or "reckless"? Really? How, exactly? For not seeing how bad the weather was going to become and start personally leading the audience out of the fairgrounds? This assumes a standard of legal cause-and-effect that would be breathtaking. Going to invite someone over to your house for dinner? You'd better get them to sign a waiver, or they might sue you if their car hits a patch of ice and crashes. You should have known that was a possible danger and warned your unsuspecting invitee to be careful.
