Written by Jimmy Golen at ValleyNews.com
It wasn’t the report about his fingers being blown off. It was the picture of his confidential medical chart sent to almost 4 million Twitter followers that prompted New York Giants linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul to sue ESPN and reporter Adam Schefter for invasion of privacy.
Citing state privacy laws, Pierre-Paul asked a Miami-Dade County Circuit Court to award him at least $15,000 in damages over the report that followed his Fourth of July fireworks accident. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, also left open the possibility of punitive damages.
The suit concedes that the injury to an NFL star was a matter of public interest, a legal standard that limits his right to a privacy claim. However, it contends that the photo of his actual medical chart describing the injury to three fingers on his right hand was not.
But to win, Pierre-Paul will have to prove he was damaged by the release of the medical chart, and not just by the injury itself.
“Florida law makes it very difficult for Jason Pierre-Paul or anybody else that has a similar claim to prevail,” said Darren Heitner, the owner of the Miami-area firm Heitner Legal who teaches sports law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “We’re dealing with a public figure. It’s not as if Adam Schefter found some random person who was injured using fireworks on July 4.”
ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz declined comment on behalf of the network. Schefter did not respond to an email seeking comment; the lawsuit quotes an interview he gave Sports Illustrated in which he called the chart “the ultimate proof” but conceded, “In hindsight, I could have and should have done even more here due to the sensitivity of the situation.”
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