Injured ‘Spider-Man’ Actor Blames Equipment Malfunction

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Spider-Man and the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

Daniel Curry, a young actor who was badly injured last month while performing in the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” has filed court papers contending that his accident was due to malfunctioning equipment in the show, and not to human error, as the show’s producers have maintained.

The legal filing in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday seeks to halt any effort by the producers to alter or destroy a computerized stage lift until his experts can examine, photograph, and test the equipment to prepare for a possible civil complaint, which the performer is now considering, according to one of his lawyers, Elias N. Fillas. The lift was elevating Mr. Curry to the stage when the accident took place. The lawyers are also requesting any contracts and other paperwork related to the lift, and any internal production reports about the accident. The Daily News first reported the legal filing.

The court papers include the most specific information to date about Mr. Curry’s injuries; he sustained fractured legs and a fractured foot, and has had surgeries and amputations as a result. In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Fillas declined to describe the amputations or comment on Mr. Curry’s recovery, other than to say he remains at Bellevue Hospital.

The injury occurred at the Aug. 15 performance of the musical when Mr. Curry, an ensemble cast member who was one of the nine Spider-Man dancers, found his foot caught in the lift and then pinned when a trap door closed on it. He was immediately taken to Bellevue.

The day after Mr. Curry’s accident, the show’s technicians concluded that the computer-controlled scenery had been working properly and was not the cause of the injury, according to a spokesman for the “Spider-Man” producers. The spokesman, Rick Miramontez, said human error was to blame, though he emphasized that the producers were not pointing the finger at Mr. Curry and that multiple people were involved in executing the scene where Mr. Curry was injured.

But the legal papers contend that Mr. Curry sustained “severe and permanent bodily injury as a result of a lift machine that malfunctioned.” The filing did not cite evidence, but included a statement from Mr. Curry that the computerized lift was supposed to operate “without any maneuvering on my part.”

Reached on Wednesday, Mr. Miramontez said in a statement: “Everyone at ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ is extraordinarily concerned with Daniel’s well-being. The producers have done an extensive internal investigation and are confident that the production and its equipment were in no way responsible for the unfortunate incident.”

While cast members in Broadway musicals routinely suffer minor injuries, “Spider-Man” has had a number of serious accidents. Soon after the show began performances in November 2010, another ensemble dancer, Christopher Tierney, sustained broken ribs and other internal injuries when he fell 20 feet from a stage platform because his safety tether was not properly attached. The actor who stepped in for Mr. Tierney, Joshua Kobak, said he went on to suffer injuries, and filed a $6 million lawsuit against the equipment provider and other companies. One of the show’s lead actresses, Natalie Mendoza, quit early on after she sustained a concusion when she was hit in the head by a rope. Her successor, T. V. Carpio, was injured on the set as well.