Personal Injury Law

NFL Player?s Personal Injury Lawsuit Against Former Team Tossed

By Michael

David Givens will have to find another way to score against his former team.

A federal judge recently dismissed a personal injury lawsuit filed by the former NFL wide receiver against the Tennessee Titans football team. The judge said Givens will have to pursue further action through arbitration under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.

In a $25 million personal injury lawsuit filed in September 2009 against the Titans, Givens claims he was encouraged to play in games, even though it was known he had a knee condition that could not hold up against the jarring impacts of NFL play, according to the Tennessean.

U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell dismissed the suit by filing an order. Within the order, Judge Campbell wrote that Givens? suit was not ?sufficiently independent of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement? made between the football league and the players.

?The Supreme Court has held that because preempted claims must first be presented through the arbitration procedure established in the collective bargaining agreement, those claims be dismissed,? Campbell wrote.

The Titans have not released a statement about Givens? suit since it was thrown out.

The suit claims Givens was not made aware of results of an examination on his knee made by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tomas Byrd. According to the suit, Byrd?s exam found Givens might need surgery at some point on the knee due to a large defect within his knee joint, where the upper leg connects to the knee the Tennessean reported.

Byrd?s report continued to say the condition and treatment for it could have kept him out of the NFL for a whole season, according to the suit. Byrd examinated Givens before he signed a 5 year contract with the football team in March 2006.

Givens? sports injury occurred in November 2006 during a home game against the Baltimore Ravens. The suit claims the lesion in his knee had crumbled, and he has not played in an NFL game since then.

The suit further states that Givens did not know about his knee condition until February 2009, when he finally reviewed the medical file.

Givens? attorney Dan Warlick told the Tennessean that the decision by Campbell was not a surprise. Warlick said Campbell?s ruling does not question the actual validity of the suit.

?When we filed, it was one of the issues we had to overcome, whether we could get it into federal court without the arbitration,? Warlick said. ?We just thought federal court would be a better place to try.?

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on February 21, 2010 (boomark / email).