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Dershowitz Sues Celtics’|Home for a Slip & Fall

BOSTON (CN) - If TD Garden kept its bathrooms stocked with paper towels, Alan Dershowitz would not have slipped and hurt his leg at a Celtics game, he claims in court.

Though he now lives in Miami, the iconic attorney says he was teaching in Cambridge at Harvard Law School when he attended the June 1, 2012, playoffs game at the Garden.

During a timeout in the fourth quarter, Dershowitz left his fifth-row seat and entered the nearest men's room, the May 29 complaint filed in Suffolk County Superior Court states.

Dershowitz says the tiled floor was "covered in a pile of water" that he believes had been there for at least an hour.

"Professor Dershowitz stepped onto this wet area of tile and violently slipped, causing him to fall upward and then hard upon the tile floor and severely twisting his right knee and leg, landing on his back," the complaint stats.

Dershowitz says he needed to use the handrails to get back to his center-court seat, and soon found that "his right knee and leg became unbearably painful."

When Dershowitz complained to TD Garden staff about the dangerous condition of its bathroom, they were concerned enough by the "severity" of his injuries that they had the professor rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, according to the complaint.

Dershowitz says he left the hospital with the help of a knee brace and crutches, and that an "MRI revealed a Grade I sprain pattern of the medial collateral ligament and small joint effusion with synovitis."

Three years later, Dershowitz says the "debilitating" pain continues to this day and that he may have to undergo surgery in addition to the ongoing physical therapy.

Noting that there were no paper towels in the bathroom at the time of his fall, Dershowitz says TD Garden is to blame for his injury since it didn't give guests a means to dry their hands after washing them.

"This dangerous condition allowed water from the recently washed hands of each of the myriad bathroom user to drip or be 'shaken' onto the floor, negligently creating a hazardous situation for all users," the seven-page complaint states.

Dershowitz says the Garden hadn't even erected a wet-floor sign in the obviously hazardous bathroom.

High-profile clients of Dershowitz's include Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, Patty Hearst and Leona Helmsley. He is also an outspoken advocate and frequent commentator for civil liberties.

Dershowitz itemized his medical expenses at $5,984.

He is represented in the negligence action against Delaware North Cos. and TD Banknorth Garden by Alex MacDonald.

A spokesman for Delaware North declined to comment on the case.

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