CHRISTINA GRIMMIE’S
family amends an unlawful death lawsuit against The Plaza Live and the slain singer’s tour promoter.
The family of singer Christina Grimmie filed an amended complaint this week in their unlawful death lawsuit against her tour promoter and the Orlando venue where she was shot and killed last year.
The new complaint, filed Tuesday, comes after a judge last month dismissed the suit and gave the family’s attorneys 21 days to amend their complaint due to several legal issues.
Grimmie, 22, was killed June 10 after she performed at the The Plaza Live in Orlando. She was signing autographs inside the venue when a deranged fan shot her three times. Her brother, Mark Grimmie, tackled the gunman, who got away and then shot and killed himself.
Grimmie, who rose to fame on YouTube, finished in third place on the sixth season of NBC’s "The Voice” in 2014.
Her parents and brother filed a suit in December against tour promoter AEG Live and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra Plaza Foundation Inc., which owns the venue. The wrongful death suit claimed that the two groups should have provided better security.
The new complaint goes into greater detail about the security and the emotional and physical distress her family has dealt with over the year since her death, something Circuit Judge Keith White recommended last month when he dismissed the first complaint.
Her brother was bruised and suffered a muscle tear in his leg after the attack. In the months since, he’s suffered from depression, loss of appetite, insomnia, weight loss and emotional distress that will affect him permanently, court records show.
In the aftermath, the new complaint says both The Plaza Live and AEG Live have implemented new policies where metal detectors are now used.
The family’s attorneys say those policies would have saved Grimmie’s life if they had been in place during her concert, the complaint states.
The new complaint also says Grimmie did not actually have a written contract with AEG Live but they “agreed to be responsible” for her safety.
It alleges that there was a “foreseeable” danger and both the venue and her tour promoter were “aware of the danger that persons attending concerts...might try to enter with weapons and try to injure performers,” court records show.
The family is suing to cover Grimmie’s medical and funeral expenses, support they would have gotten from her future earnings, and the emotional toll of losing her. The suit says a specific dollar amount would be determined at trial.
At first, her family was also asking for the venue and the concert promoter to pay out her future earnings but since Grimmie was under the age of 25, she was still considered a minor under Florida law when it comes to economic damages.
The amended complaint instead seeks financial support Grimmie would have given her parents during their lifetimes.