A LAWYER IN the New York borough of Staten Island has asked a court for a “trial by combat” to settle a long-running civil suit being brought against him.
Richard Luthmann, an estate-planning and tax lawyer, who is representing himself in the case, made the formal request recently before the state’s Supreme Court:
Defendant [Luthmann]…demands his common law right to Trial by Combat as against Plaintiffs and their counsel, whom Plaintiff wishes to implead into the Trial by Combat by writ of right.
In the affidavit (which you can read in full here), Luthmann includes several pages of explanation as to the history of the unorthodox resolution method, through the Middle Ages, and argues that it was never outlawed in the United States.
He then concludes:
The allegations made by Plaintiffs, aided and abetted by their counsel, border upon the criminal.
As such, the undersigned respectfully requests that the Court permit the Undersigned to dispatch Plaintiffs and their counsel to the Divine Providence of the Maker for Him to exact His Divine Judgment once the Undersigned has released the souls of the Plaintiffs and their counsel from their corporeal bodies, personally and/or by way of a Champion.
According to New York court records, the plaintiffs have not yet formally responded to this “invitation,” which was filed on 24 July.
Luthmann is being sued by several New York businessmen over his alleged role in a 2012 brokerage deal that appears to have gone badly.
The Ivy-League educated attorney admits he is a fan of Game of Thrones, which features several instances of Trial by Combat, and told local news website The Staten Island Advance:
They want to be absurd about what they’re trying to do, then I’ll give them back ridiculousness in kind.
If these people want to insist on having it out, then we’ll have it out.
Luthmann has made news in New York in the past, in 2013 accusing fellow Democrats of a conspiracy to keep him off the ballot in his campaign for Staten Island Borough President.
You can read Luthmann’s affidavit in full by scrolling down, or clicking here.
http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2015/08/luthmannaffidavit.pdf
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