Dismissed: Basketball Face-Punch Claim Against Lawyers League

Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Paul G. Feinman dismissed a negligence action against the Lawyers Athletic League by a former Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman teammate who was allegedly punched in the face by rivals during a basketball game.

Devone Stephenson, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 218 pounds, testified that on March 1, members of an opposing team repeatedly fouled and taunted him with chants of, “Yo, big man,” before punching him in the face and fracturing his jaw, the New York Law Journal reports.

Although Stephenson was not an employee of Milberg, he did submit an online waiver form before playing, in which he assumed the responsibility not only for his own “actions, inactions or negligence but the actions, inactions or negligence of others.” The paper notes that the judge hinged his ruling on the submission of this waiver.

“The fact that the waiver and release does not expressly mention the possibility of injury resulting from assault by another player, even a player not properly admitted, does not render it invalid,” Justice Feinman concluded in granting summary judgment in favor of the league, according to the New York Law Journal.