NEWARK, N.J. — Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan and other people in a limousine struck from behind by a Wal-Mart truck on a highway in June are at least partly to blame for their injuries because they weren't wearing seatbelts, the company said in a court filing Monday.
The filing was made in federal court in response to a lawsuit Morgan filed in July over the accident, which killed his friend James McNair, who was accompanying the former Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock star back from a show in Delaware. Morgan spent several weeks in rehab with rib and leg injuries.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, said in the filing that the passengers' injuries were caused "in whole or in part" by their "failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device," which it said constitutes unreasonable conduct.
An attorney representing Morgan and the other plaintiffs called Wal-Mart's contentions "surprising and appalling."
In a statement released later by Morgan's publicist, the actor-comedian says he "can't believe Walmart is blaming me for an accident that they caused." Morgan goes on to say that he and his friends were doing nothing wrong.