NEW YORK – A Manhattan man filed a $30 million lawsuit against New York City publicist Elizabeth Grubman, saying she injured him when she backed her SUV into a crowd outside a Long Island nightclub.
Adam Wacht said in court papers that Grubman “violently struck” him while driving her father’s 2001 Mercedes-Benz SUV on July 7 outside the Conscience Point Inn in Southampton.
Wacht said he was a pedestrian outside the club when he became a victim of “Grubman’s reckless and intentional assault.”
Witnesses told police Grubman seemed to deliberately back into the crowd after she cursed at bouncers and called one of them “white trash” when he told her to move her SUV from the fire lane.
The crash injured 16 people, some of whom were pinned against an outside wall of the club. The injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to a broken ankle and head injuries, none life-threatening.
Grubman’s lawyer, Stephen Scaring, denied that his client had deliberately hit anybody. He said the crash was a “tragic accident” caused by Grubman’s lack of familiarity with the SUV.
Scaring said Grubman’s father, entertainment lawyer Allen Grubman, had owned the SUV about a week and his daughter had driven it only one other time.
