NEW YORK (AP) — The couple whose wedding at Manhattan’s famous Waldorf Astoria hotel was cut short when a guest’s gun accidentally went off wants their money back.
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer representing bride Anna Goldshmidt and her husband Elan Stratiyevsky, says they intend to sue or negotiate with the hotel for the costs of the wedding.
The couple also is considering a lawsuit against Vladimir Gotlibovsky, a guest at their wedding who accidentally fired his gun, grazing a woman in the head.
Charges against him have been deferred.
Brafman didn’t say how much the wedding cost.
A Waldorf Astoria New York representative says the reception was canceled due to safety concerns. The hotel says it made the decision on the “paramount concerns of the safety and security” of the guests and employees.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I would say the hotel is completely blameless. The couple should be suing the guest who irresponsibly secured his firearm and discharged it in a public place and injured another guest. He should still be sitting in jail for endangering the public. If the 2nd Ammendment fetishists insist upon rights, they must also accept the responsibilities that go with it. If you’re going to carry a weapon, you are responsible to secure it in such a way as not to endanger or injure the public with it. The 2nd Ammendment is not a license for a free fire zone. The hotel is completely right to have cancelled the event. It was already obvious that it was unsafe, as exemplifed by the fact that someone got shot. That could very easily have been staff at the hotel or another guest. For the hotel’s own liability, it’s essential that they not allow the event to continue.
excuse me but why sue the hotel wasn’t it one of the guest that brought his gun to the wedding …and wasn’t HE responsible for the gun going off not the hotel??? sue his ass
Shotgun wedding?
The hotel could be liable if it allows weapons on the premises.
I thought weapons had to be declared and secured in NYC hotels. I don’t know for certain what the Waldorf’s policy is but if they allow guests to roam the premises with weapons, other guests may have a claim against them as well as the negligent gun nut.
I don’t know the laws in New York State or New York city, but I know that in much of the south and the sunbelt, hotels can’t exclude firearms. They’re stuck hoping nobody shoots anyone else.