A lawsuit filed on October 11 seeks emotional-distress damages based on allegations that Siegfried Fischbacher, the "Siegfried" in "Siegfried & Roy," has frightened and humiliated Roy Horn ever since Roy was attacked by one of the tigers that the duo uses in their Las Vegas act. Roy was hospitalized for months after the 2003 attack and is still in rehabilitation.
Oddly, however, Roy is not the plaintiff in this lawsuit. Rather, it was filed by Louis Mydlach, Roy's former bodyguard. Mydlach claims that Siegfried is a "tyrant" who forced Roy to take medication, refused to buy Roy new clothing, and otherwise "scared" and "tormented" his former partner. Mydlach says that this mistreatment of Roy caused him (Mydlach) such stress that he had to start taking antidepressants and was forced to leave his position. He claims to still be "haunted and distressed" by the treatment inflicted on Roy.
Now you may be thinking, why didn't Roy's bodyguard protect Roy from this mistreatment? Isn't that what bodyguards do? All I can say is, you have evidently never been around Siegfried the Tyrant when he is in the middle of one of his "loud, explosive outbursts." Certainly, it is enough to make any bodyguard weep, quit his job, and file a lawsuit for emotional distress, that's for sure.
Mydlach apparently met Siegfried and Roy years ago when they hired his father's company for security services. He says that after years of service he has a "close and almost familial relationship" with Roy. That is generally not a close enough relationship to permit emotional-distress damages for harm to someone else, which appears to constitute the bulk of the allegations in the complaint; typically a plaintiff must have witnessed harm to an actual family member before such damages can be awarded. It is entirely possible, of course, that different rules apply in Las Vegas.
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