My friend, Sean Bawden, is a lawyer in Ottawa. Last year, he wrote a guest post for a friend’s blog called “Who do you sue for damages after the zombie apocalypse?” It was a highly entertaining read, especially the section on possibly suing the estate of the zombie.
I thought of Sean’s post when I read this article a short time ago from the ABA Journal. Essentially, an 18-year-old man, Hiroyuki Joho, was struck by an Amtrak train and killed, following which part of his body flew through the air and struck a 58-year-old woman, Gayane Zokhrabov, who suffered injuries to her shoulder, leg and wrist. Gayane sued Hiroyuki’s estate, and the trial judge initially found that the accident “was not reasonably foreseeable and was instead tragically bizarre.” However, this was reversed on appeal, and the court has found that she can sue Hiroyuki’s estate for her injuries as he owed her a duty of care.
In the meantime, Hiroyuki’s family is suing Amtrak.