New York Post A Kansas man has thrown down the gauntlet to his ex-wife and her attorney — seeking court permission to settle their child custody case “on the field of battle” with a sword fight.
David Ostrom, 40, claims in court papers that ex-wife Bridgette Ostrom, 38, and her attorney, Matthew Hudson, have already “destroyed (him) legally” in their ongoing legal battle in her hometown in Iowa.
“I now wish to give them the chance to meet me on the field of battle, where I will REND THEIR SOULS from their … bodies,” Ostrom wrote in the filing, according to the Carroll Times Herald.
He asked the judge for a three-month delay so he could obtain Japanese samurai swords ready for his planned combat.
Ostrom, of Paola, said he got the idea after seeing the New York case of Richard Luthmann, the Staten Island attorney who also sought trial by combat to settle a beef with another lawyer and his clients.
“To this day, trial by combat has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States,” Ostrom argued in court records, adding that it was used “as recently as 1818 in British Court.”
He told the Des Moines Register that his wife could choose her attorney as her “champion” to stand in for her in battle.
“I think I’ve met Mr. Hudson’s absurdity with my own absurdity,” he told the paper. “If Mr. Hudson is willing to do it, I will meet him. I don’t think he has the guts to do it.”
Hudson referred to himself as the “potential combatant” in his own cheeky legal response filed in Shelby County District Court.
“Although the respondent and potential combatant do have souls to be rended, they respectfully request that the court not order this done,” Hudson wrote, according to the reports.
He noted that the “potentially life-ending ramifications” of a duel “surely outweigh” their fight over property tax and custody issues.