Actor Sues Trapeze Firm, Producer Over Fall

A Canoga Park man who says he suffered permanent leg and back injuries when a trapeze broke while he was performing has filed suit against the Westlake Village man who staged the show and the North Hollywood firm that supplied the trapeze.

Lavernne Brizendine, 24, filed suit last week in Van Nuys Superior Court seeking unspecified damages for pain, suffering and loss of his dancing career.

Brizendine was playing the part of Tom Thumb in a production of the musical “P.T. Barnum” staged at an Agoura Hills shopping center when the accident occurred Aug. 23 in front of about 100 spectators, said Brizendine’s lawyer, Michael J. Phelan of Woodland Hills.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Tommy Finnan of Westlake Village, owner of Finnan Productions, which put on the show, and Brickmore Acrobatic Co., the North Hollywood firm that supplied the trapeze.

Pole Snapped

Brizendine, who was not formally trained as a trapeze artist, said in a telephone interview that he was seated on the trapeze and swinging about 10 feet above the ground when a pole holding the trapeze snapped.

He said he fell to the ground, landing on his buttocks, and was struck on the head by poles from the trapeze.

Brizendine, who has a bachelor’s degree in dance and formerly toured France and Switzerland as a modern dancer for the Bella Lewitzky Dance Co., said he has suffered recurrent back and leg injuries that have left him unable to perform as a dancer.

Finnan and representatives of the Brickmore firm could not be reached for comment Monday.