Law Humor

We learned last month about the Knoxville man who sued his church claiming he had been injured in a fall caused by the holy spirit.  (It wasn't capitalized in the complaint).  Matthew Lincoln did not blame the spirit, however (let alone sue it), instead arguing that the church is liable for negligent supervision because the "catchers" it employs for such situations did not do their job.

The story appeared again in many news outlets on July 10, likely after the church's lawyers had filed an answer to the complaint.  The only additional detail provided by the AP report is the claim that other congregants saw Lincoln laughing after his fall, at a time when he says he had just injured his head and back.

But in an interview by WATE-TV in Knoxville, Lincoln said he had trusted the catchers to be there if the spirit took him because they had always been there on prior occasions, and that he is still in constant pain a year later.  "There's no amount of money that can compensate for what's happened to me," he said, although as usual with people who say that kind of thing, he did still suggest an amount ($2.5 million).

Comments on the station's website were not particularly favorable to Lincoln.  "If the spirit moved him, I think the spirit should have caught him," wrote one commenter.

Link: AP via FindLaw.com