Chatsworth Tour Firm Exonerated in Safari Lawsuit

A jury Wednesday rejected a negligence lawsuit brought against Chatsworth-based Brendan Vacations Inc. by three people attacked and robbed by bandits during a 2007 African nature walk, including a pregnant woman who was shot and lost her fetus.

• Previously: Safari Victims Seek Millions From Chatsworth Tour Firm

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for less than a day before finding in favor of the travel company and against plaintiffs Rg Lutz and his wife, Jacqueline, of Redondo Beach, and his boyhood friend, Raymond Mollica of Long Island, N.Y.

The three maintained the shooting could have been prevented had one of their tour guides, Herman Kiriama, been properly trained and not tried to prevent the robbery. Their attorney, Gayle Blatt, had recommended a collective award of millions of dollars.

The jury concluded Kiriama acted reasonably under the circumstances, defense attorney Jerri Johnson said.

"We're obviously very happy," Johnson said. "We think the jury did its job and that they were careful, conscientious and took their time."

Johnson said Kiriama was an experienced tour guide and that there is no evidence his actions caused one of the bandits to open fire.

Blatt said she was disappointed with the verdict, but also appreciated the jury's work.

"We accept their verdict," she said. "They put in a lot of time and listened carefully to the evidence."

Jacqueline Lutz, 38, was four months pregnant when she went on the trip in March 2007 with her doctors' consent. She said she and her husband met with Mollica and his then-fiancee, Celia Vergel DeDios, at their hotel near Arusha, Tanzania, the first night of their joint safari vacation in March 2007.

She said they discussed their plans to take the nature walk and the next morning met the tour guides, Kiriama and Charles Safari, before the two couples and a female tourist from Great Britain embarked on the walk to Lake Duluti.

She said they were initially confronted on the trail by a bandit holding a machete, who demanded their money. Although they complied, Kiriama began struggling with the man and then the second criminal began shooting in response, she said.

Jacqueline Lutz said she was unable to get medical attention from a doctor for hours after she was shot in the abdomen and was then told that her fetus had not survived. She and her husband were experienced travelers who were on their first escorted tour.

Mollica was shot in the left leg. Safari was hit in the head by gunfire and died.

The Lutzes and Mollica filed suit against Brendan Vacations in March 2009, alleging the company made numerous representations on its website regarding its "Splendor in the Serengeti" tour that led them to believe everyone involved in their trip once they reached Africa was a Brendan employee.

They maintain they only learned later that Brendan delegated most aspects of the trip to third-party companies, including the ground tour operator.

Blatt said the travelers had no way of knowing that Brendan was actually a wholesale company that bought slots within other companies' tours.

Rg Lutz currently flies for Korean Air. His wife, a former pilot for United Airlines, was furloughed after the 9/11 attacks and was offered her job back in 2006 but declined so she could start raising a family, according to Blatt.

— City News Service