Charla Nash has received a $4 million settlement from the courts over a lawsuit regarding a chimpanzee that attacked and mauled her in 2009. Nash was visiting the estate of Sandra Herold, who died last year, to try to lure Herold’s 200-pound chimpanzee, Travis, back into the house. Apparently the chimp starred in commercials when he was younger and lived a pampered existence with Herold, being fed steak, lobster and ice cream, drinking wine from glasses, and freely using the bathroom to bathe and dress himself. But for whatever the reason on that day it viciously attacked Nash, ripping off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being shot to death by a police officer. She subsequently underwent a face transplant and now lives in a nursing home. Charla Nash’s brother filed the lawsuit on her behalf in 2009 in state Superior Court seeking $50 million in damages. Her lawyer called the $4 million received “insignificant” compared to what Nash has had to endure.
“The money that we have obtained for Charla is an insignificant amount in the scheme of things,” the Nashes’ lawyer Charles Willinger said Thursday. “It won’t nearly address her medical needs and her other lifestyle needs, not to mention pain and suffering. That is why we will pursue the entity we think is most culpable, the Energy and Environmental Protection Department of Connecticut, for allowing Sandra Herold to possess the chimp in the first place.”
