This is how ‘trial by combat’ is totally legal in New York State

In August 2015, Staten Island attorney Richard A. Luthmann motioned a New York State court to allow "Game of Thrones" style trial by combat to decide one of his cases. During a lawsuit, Luthmann allegedly advised a client to liquidate his assets and move the funds to where the people suing him couldn't get to them.

So those people decided to sue Luthmann, who wasn't happy about it. He asked a judge to sanction an official trial by combat.

His intent was to settle the civil case in "a fight to the death between either party or champions of the party" while highlighting how silly the plaintiff's lawyers were. And less than six months later, the right to a trial by combat was upheld by the New York State Supreme Court.

In a 10-page brief, Luthmann details the rights of trial by combat in Medieval England and England's American colonies. The motion to ban the practice was blocked by Parliament in 1774 and was not restricted by the Constitution.

Luthman also contends the practice is protected by the Ninth Amendment, which protects the rights mentioned specifically elsewhere in the Constitution.

Luthmann wrote in a brief to the New York State Supreme Court:

"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."

The idea of the request was to initially highlight how ridiculous it was for the party suing Luthmann's client to then sue the counsel for his client for offering legal advice for $500,000.

In March 2016, Supreme Court Justice Philip G. Minardo upheld not just Luthmann's right to request a trial by combat to settle the dispute, but also the legality of trial by combat and its protection under the Constitution of the United States.

Sadly for the entertainment world, Justice Minardo resolved that Luthmann's civil suit would be settled in court, either by a judge or jury.

"I believe that the court's ruling is based upon my adversaries' unequivocal statement that they would not fight me," Luthmann told Staten Island Live. "Under my reading of the law, the other side has forfeited because they have not met the call of battle. They have declared themselves as cowards in the face of my honorable challenge, and I should go to inquest on my claims."