Once each summer people of all ilk trek to Nevada's Black Rock Desert for several days of the stepped-up zaniness, relaxed inhibitions, pseudo epiphanies, self-designed rituals, and bauble exchanges that make up the Burning Man Festival.
The celebration concludes with torching of the Burning Man, a huge wooden presider which is cheered as it chars. The event has become, regrettably to some, commercial and corporate, with high ticket prices, waivers, and liability insurance.
Good thing.
Anthony Beninati is appealing a San Francisco Superior Court summary judgment ruling tripping up his damage claim against Black Rock City LLC (the Burning Man enterprise) for his own burns suffered when he stumbled and fell into the Burning Man's ashes trying to ignite a photo of a late friend.
Black Rock City is prepared for legal eventualities. Its web site says it has "recruited several new attorneys and law students to our legal team, expanding the team to over 25 qualified volunteers from several states."
The team, however, may have been less-prepared for Mr. Beninati's lawsuit. The Burning Man web site notes that "the ticket waiver informs all participants of the risks they will encounter at Burning Man. Consequently, the community's lawyers get to work mostly on other (more fun) legal issues."
On the other hand, Black Rock City should not have been surprised by litigation. Its site also claims that "the Burning Man community is chock full of lawyers."
Beninati's claim doesn't reveal whether his attorney Evan Marshall (of former state plaintiffs' lawyer association president Ian Herzog) was one of them.