CHARLESTON — A woman is suing Mountaintop ATV Rentals & Tours claiming it was negligent and caused her injuries while she was on a guided tour.
Twin Hollow Campground and Cameron Ellis were also named as defendants in the suit.
Victoria Murphy and her boyfriend traveled from her home in Wellsboro, Pa., to Gilbert, W.Va., to stay and explore the Hatfield and McCoy trail using her all-terrain, side-by-side vehicle on March 21, 2021, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Murphy claims they signed up for a guided tour to see wild horses and watch the sunset, and prior to the start of the tour, Ellis provided them with general information, but no safety information or training was shared.
"Upon information and belief, no employee of Defendant had any prior training that would even qualify them to provide any safety instruction relative to being around 'wild horses,'" the complaint states. "The riders on the tour were guided and supervised by an employee, agent, and/or representative of Defendants at all times."
Murphy claims upon arriving at the location where the horses were located, indicating that the horses were not, in-fact, “wild,” to her sad astonishment, the horses appeared to be neglected and emaciated animals that had simply been abandoned by their owners.
The employee of the defendants’ then distributed bags of carrots to the customers, encouraging them to interact and feed the horses.
"Trusting Defendants’ employee, and following his instructions, Plaintiff approached the horses to begin feeding them," the complaint states. "After attempting to feed one horse, Plaintiff moved back toward her ATV to wait while the rest of the customers finished feeding the horses. Plaintiff then began to turn and pivot to walk away, when suddenly she was violently kicked by a horse with such force that it threw her several feet in the opposite direction."
Murphy claims she experienced instant, extreme pain and she was lifted from the ground to the tailgate of an ATV and other tour members used their own supplies to help her, as the defendants did not have first aid on the tour.
Murphy claims the following day her pain and swelling were worse and they returned home to seek medical attention, where she was diagnosed with a broken leg.
Murphy is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. She is represented by Philip A. Reale II of the Law Office of Philip A. Reale in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:23-cv-00094
