A woman who broke her skull and collarbone when the lead singer of Fishbone dived from a Philadelphia stage has been awarded $1.4 million in her lawsuit against the band.
A federal judge found that Fishbone's Angelo "Dr. Madd Vibe" Moore has shown little remorse and hasn't stopped stage-diving despite frequent injuries to concert-goers.
Kimberly Myers, of Voorhees, N.J., was injured during a performance at WXPN's World Cafe Live in February 2010. She lost consciousness when she was knocked to the floor, yet the band "continued to perform as if nothing had happened," U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois wrote in Wednesday's ruling.
The award, first reported Thursday by The Legal Intelligencer, includes $1.1 million in compensatory damages against Moore and his band and business partner, bassist John Norwood Fisher. Moore was also ordered to pay $250,000 in punitive damages.
Amee Hamlin of Silverback Artist Management, which manages the Los Angeles-based band, said she had no immediate comment on the damage award.
The band has been stage-diving since the 1980s, and had been sued at least once before over a similar injury, the judge said.
"Moore testified that every couple of months an ambulance is called to the concert venue," DuBois wrote.
Moore, in a February 2011 deposition said the band doesn't issue warnings about the act because it detracts from the show's "theatrics."
"People want to be on the edge when they go to a Fishbone show," Moore said, according to the ruling.
Myers, a mother of three, had not known the band was on the schedule when she went to World Cafe Live that night, her lawsuit said. She works in management for a company that conducts pharmaceutical clinical trials, but now suffers from memory problems, shoulder pain, and autoimmune problems that led to lupus, the ruling said.
Myers, now 46, previously settled with other defendants, including the University of Pennsylvania, which operates the music venue.
