Jan 16, 2009 4:18 pm US/Pacific
SF Settles With Zookeeper Mauled By Tiger
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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Tatiana the tiger severely injured a zookeeper in the San Francisco Zoo in 2006 and fatally mauled a 17-year-old from San Jose in 2007.
SF Zoo
Attorneys have settled a lawsuit filed against the city of San Francisco by a former San Francisco zookeeper severely injured in 2006 by the same tiger that fatally mauled a visitor in 2007.
Lori Komejan filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in 2007 for unspecified financial damages, after her arms were clawed and bitten by a Siberian tiger named Tatiana during a public feeding event at the zoo on Dec. 22, 2006.
The case had been scheduled to go to trial Tuesday, but attorneys for Komejan, now 48, and the city were able to reach an agreement on a settlement on Dec. 12, court records show.
The terms of the financial settlement, which has not yet been finalized, were not disclosed.
"The case was resolved to the satisfaction of both sides," one of Komejan's attorneys, Michael Mandel, said Friday.
Attorneys representing the city in the case declined requests for comment.
Komejan's lawsuit alleged the zoo, a public-private partnership between the city of San Francisco and the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society, created an unsafe condition by failing to install effective safeguards for the tiger cage.
During a public feeding in the lion house, Tatiana was able to reach through the cage and grab Komejan, who was standing outside and had bent down to pick up a scrap of raw meat that had fallen outside the cage, according to Mandel.
Her attorneys said she was permanently disfigured, lost some of the use of her right arm, and has undergone multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
The zoo subsequently closed the lion house and remodeled the cages, reopening it in September 2007.
On Dec. 25, 2007, Tatiana leapt out of the tiger grotto and fatally mauled 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., of San Jose, and severely injured two of his friends, brothers Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal, also of San Jose.
The tiger was then shot dead by police.
Attorneys for both families have also filed lawsuits against the zoo and the city.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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