A California man who claims he suffered permanent ear damage from one of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company's annual June artillery barrages on the Common wants $20 million in recompense - half from the historic group and half from the National Guard.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in US District Court on Friday, A. Michael Davallou of Los Angeles says he was a visitor to our fair Hub on June 1, 2015 and had no idea that when he "wandered onto Boston Common" that the Ancient and Honorables were in the middle of their annual change-of-command ceremony, which always includes an artillery barrage by active US military personnel from the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument hill.

Davallou says nobody warned him to stay "a safe distance" from the artillery and that when the troops fired the guns, he suffered "serious and permanent personal injury" in the form of hearing loss and permanent ringing in his ears.

Davallou's suit charges the Ancient and Honorable company was negligent both for not warning the public of imminent booming and for:

Causing, directing, arranging, organizing, supervising and controlling the firing of military artillery in close proximity to civilians in a public park when it knew or should have known that such firing would produce noise and sonic waves sufficient to create a risk of severe and permanent injury to the public including plaintiff.

The Army National Guard is equally to blame for participating in the event, he alleges.

Davallou is a 2000 graduate of the Harvard Business School.