(EXCLUSIVE) Shaq & NBA Star Trey Burke Win Legal Battle Against Man Accusing Them of Mocking Rare Medical Condition
The man sued the celebrities for defamation, claiming over $8 million people saw the posts on social media and sought damages for the harm they did to him.
Shaq and Burke both fired back to the legal battle late last year, stating Binion’s entire lawsuit was not valid.
Burke claimed that he had no idea the man had a rare medical disorder and deleted the post once finding out. He said that if anyone’s reputation had been damaged it was his own due to people thinking he would mock someone with such a condition. He said that Binion had not suffered any damages.
Shaq also said the picture was already publicly available to more than 150 million users as soon as Binion posted the selfie on his page and thus he cannot claim that he had his privacy invaded when he uploaded to a social media website. They both demanded the entire lawsuit be dismissed and Binion awarded NOTHING.
Then on April 2nd, the federal court judge came back with his decision and sided with the NBA stars by dismissing all claims against them. The order states that while Shaq’s posts were “highly offensive” in subject manner, the former NBA star has no business in Michigan – where the lawsuit was filed – and thus the lawsuit cannot be fought in the state.
Further, the judge says that Binion posted the photo himself and when Burke re-posted the image he never made any mention of the medical condition he suffers from and thus it is not private. The judge says that Burke did nothing wrong and cannot be held liable for damages due to him not making any profits off the posting or by saying him anything bad about Binion.
The case was closed for both NBA stars and Binion was awarded nothing. See the exclusive court docs.
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