Gathers’ Plaintiffs Limited : Ruling: In case involving player’s death, judge decides that brothers and aunt cannot sue.

Defense attorneys in the two lawsuits filed on behalf of Hank Gathers said they won a significant victory in Los Angeles Superior Court Friday, when at least two causes of action filed by plaintiff attorneys were tossed out and the language in several other actions was sent back for revision.

Marshall Silverberg, the attorney for four of the defendants listed in the multimillion-dollar suits, argued successfully in the Southwest District Court in Torrance that several of the plaintiffs listed do not have the right to sue his clients, or to file suit at all.

“I guess what is happening is the whole suit is being streamlined to the nitty-gritty,” Silverberg said. “And that is, do the aunt and brothers have a right to sue? The answer to that is clearly no.”

Gathers, a Loyola Marymount basketball player, collapsed March 4 at Gersten Pavilion while playing in a West Coast Conference tournament game, and was pronounced dead 1 hour 40 minutes later at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be unknown cardiomyopathy, a heart disorder.

Silverberg represents the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Group and Drs. Clarence Shields, Ralph Gambardella and Benjamin Schaeffer, four of the 14 defendants named in both suits. One suit was filed on behalf of Gathers’ mother, Lucille, brothers Derrick and Charles and an aunt, Carol Livingston, and the second on behalf of Gathers’ estate and Aaron Crump, Gathers’ 6-year- old son who lives in Philadelphia with his mother, Marva Crump.

Commissioner Abraham Gorenfeld disallowed claims of prospective economic damage made by both the family and the estate. The complaint contends that Gathers’ death denied him the opportunity to provide financial income for his family, which was his intent, had he lived and had an NBA or broadcasting career.

“We expected to lose that one,” said Bruce Fagel, the attorney for the Gathers’ family. “It is a new area of law that isn’t here yet. Both the brothers and the aunt were dependent, or going to be, on Hank, because he would be their ticket out of the ghetto, and we were trying to show the court the law should be expanded to show economic loss.”

Gorenfeld also ruled that Livingston and Gathers’ brothers were not permissible plaintiffs in claiming emotional distress, since the California Civil Code requires the plaintiff to be an heir or parent.

Gorenfeld’s rulings apply only to Silverberg’s four defendants, who filed the objections--or demurrers--to the suits. However, Silverberg said the ruling should apply in equal force to the 10 other defendants after they file a motion for a summary judgment.

Ken Wolf, attorney for the estate and for Gathers’ son, said that Aaron would still be able to sue.