sleepingfan.jpg

Andrew Rector, a fan caught sleeping on camera during a Yankees-Red Sox game, has sued ESPN, Major League Baseball and others for defamation.

(YouTube/MLB )

Ultimately, the $10 million defamation lawsuit recently filed by a sleeping New York Yankees fan may find success in one respect.

The nine-page complaint not only reminded everybody that a guy fell asleep as his team played the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on April 13, but we now know his name -- Andrew Robert Rector -- and the YouTube clip of his slumber has been viewed more than 600,000 times over the past 24 hours.

"He has a long row to hoe," veteran litigator Barry Epstein of Rochelle Park's The Epstein Law Firm told NJ.com. "He has a very, very difficult uphill case. I would not be surprised if this doesn't survive motions to dismiss."

The lawsuit filed in Bronx Supreme Court on Thursday is seeking millions from Major League Baseball, the Yankees, ESPN and the game's two announcers, John Kruk and Dan Shulman.

"The plaintiff continues to suffer severe emotional distress because of (the) defendant’ extreme and outrageous conduct," Rector's lawyer, Valentine Okwara, wrote in the complaint. "(The) defendants intentionally or recklessly made statements that created a high degree of risk of harm yet deliberately proceeded to act with conscious disregard or indifference to the risk."

Dennis Donnelly of New Jersey-based Blume Donnelly Fried Forte Zerres & Molinari told NJ.com that not only does Rector have no case, but he called the filing "idiotic."

"It's freakin' ridiculous," Donnelly added.

Epstein said anybody who enters a sports stadium has no expectation of privacy and should have the understanding that their image could be captured, something the ESPN cameras did as Rector dozed off in the fourth inning of the AL East rivalry game. The YouTube clip from MLB's account had less than 100,000 views before news spread of the lawsuit; now the clip has been viewed 770,000 times.

"Also, when you go into the game there, are limitations of liability printed on the back of the ticket," Epstein said. "Those typically cover foul balls or bats that go astray, but the language could limit liability in this instance as well."

Kruk and Schulman poked fun at the sleeping Rector, but the lawsuit aims to hold the defendants responsible for what Internet commenters said. Those comments, according to court documents, included Rector being painted as "a fatty cow" and that Rector "is so stupid that he cannot differentiate between his house and public place."

"It's extraordinarily unlikely any court would hold any of the defendants in this matter responsible for alleged comments made by other unrelated individuals," Hackensack attorney Patrick J. Jennings said. "The lawsuit, in my estimation, is illegitimate."

Jennings added that the lawsuit wouldn't likely survive a motion to dismiss.

Donnelly said he didn't know why any lawyer would take this case. NJ.com couldn't reach Okwara, who passed the bar in New York last year. He told The New York Post that "we'll settle this in court."

"Without a doubt, this shouldn't only be embarrassing to the lawyer who brought this case, but it's embarrassing to his fellow lawyers," Donnelly said. "There's no reason for it.

"Attorneys can do really valuable things, like exposing the steering system defect in GM cars, recently. That only came out because lawyers were breathing down GM's neck and taking depositions and investing thousands of hours and dollars to prove there was a serious problem causing needless deaths. However, this kind of frivolous, groundless suit ... is the kind of thing that gives lawyers a bad name."

A Yankees spokesman said the team has no comment on the lawsuit. ESPN said "the claims presented here are wholly without merit," according to The New York Post.

"I don't think any of the defendants will be losing sleep over this," Jennings said.

Sleeping fan lawsuit