SeaWorld Orlando<\/a> guest filed a complaint against the park claiming she suffered serious injuries after getting hit in the face by a duck while riding one of the park\u2019s main attractions. However, in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, SeaWorld argues she was never hit by a duck, instead it was a Snowy Egret.<\/p>\nAccording to a complaint filed on Oct. 28, in Orange County, Fla., a park visitor named Hillary Martin visited the Orlando theme park on March 24 as a \u201cbusiness invitee.\u201d During her visit, she rode the Mako roller coaster when, she claims, “a duck flew into the path of the roller coaster and struck [her] in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that SeaWorld created a \u201czone of danger for bird strikes\u201d by placing the high speed attraction near a body of water.<\/p>\n
Martin is suing the park on one count of liability, seeking more than $50,000 in damages for permanent injury, disability, physical impairment and loss of earning power.<\/p>\n
In a motion to dismiss the complaint, filed by SeaWorld Orlando\u2019s attorneys on Nov. 19, the park says it investigated the incident and claim she did not get hit by a duck lured by the nearby body of water but instead, \u201cencountered a wild migratory Snowy Egret,\u201d a bird found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis matter does not and has never involved a duck,\u201d SeaWorld attorneys allege.<\/p>\n
They added that her allegations \u201care no longer true or factual, nor are such allegations actionable against Sea World.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida law simply does not create legal responsibility for a wild animal\u2019s actions, unless the premises owner has brought the wild animal into its possession, harbored the animal or actually introduced the animal to the locality,\u201d they claim.<\/p>\n
They further allege that Martin \u201crefused medical transportation\u201d after the incident because she “wanted to keep going in the park and did not want to be held up any longer.\u201d They claim she did not seek treatment until the day after her visit.<\/p>\n
![\"Alamy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0899f70ed36e471c499b0eb7a1e355e7.jpeg\"\/)
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Alamy<\/p>\n
Mako Roller Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando<\/p>\n
The lawyers also argue that Martin\u2019s claims whereby the park created a \u201czone of danger\u201d by placing the coaster next to a body of water are \u201cspeculative\u201d and lacking in legal basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartin\u2019s event, by its own description, could have occurred regardless of the presence or absence of any body of water within the park and it still would not have been Sea World\u2019s legal responsibility,\u201d they claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe four corners of Martin\u2019s complaint demonstrate only an unfortunate incident occurred, not a compensable harm,\u201d attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n
Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\nMartin\u2019s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
The motion will be heard at an initial conference scheduled for Dec. 8.<\/p>\n
Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW SeaWorld Orlando has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from a guest who claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[18476,41711,139,141,140,33246,9026,41710],"class_list":["post-72741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-body-of-water","tag-hillary-martin","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-theme-park","tag-seaworld-orlando","tag-snowy-egret"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}