Over the last 16-plus season, LeBron James has risen to stardom in the NBA that has seen him earn the reputation of being one of the greatest players in league history. With that, stardom comes the bright spotlight on James‘ life off the court and the documentaries that followed his upbringing before he reached the NBA. That included the dialogue shifting over to his personal life that made it quite public that he didn’t grow up with his father. That fact of his personal dealings move to the forefront as a man by the name of
Leicester Bryce Stovell once sued James for millions of dollars on the claim he was his father.

LeBron James sued for $4 million

Before the case can be discussed further, let’s dig a little into a bit into who the man that sued James is.

Stovell graduated from the University of Princeton along with earning a law degree from the University of Chicago. He was also an SEC Senior legal advisor at the time of his lawsuit against the NBA star forward.

In July 2010, Stovell decided to pursue a $4 million lawsuit against James and his mother, Gloria James, on the grounds of fraud, Defamation, and misrepresentation. In the lawsuit, he claims that he had intimate relations with Gloria in 1984 to which he claims he found out long after that he didn’t know she was 15 years old while he was 29.

Stovell claims that Gloria informed him several months later that she was pregnant. More than two decades after that, he voiced that he had contacted her in 2007 because of what he believed were similar physical traits that LeBron had to him.

Stovell also claimed that during the phone call to Gloria she stated she never met him, but a few days after the phone call James took a DNA test that the results showed he wasn’t the father. Stovell stated that he believes Gloria and LeBron had tampered with the test.

Judge dismisses lawsuit against LeBron James

Although it took over a year for the entire legal matter to be sorted out in the court system, a judge dismissed the case.

According to the Blog of LegalTimes, U.S. District Judge Collen Kollar-Kotelly backed her reasoning for that decision based on several different problems raised in Stovell’s lawsuit. That included a failure to show any actual damages from either LeBron or Gloria James.

“Apparently, Stovell believes that companies are willing to pay him for being the father of LeBron James. However, any such recovery would be wholly speculative,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in the 21-page opinion.

Stovell had also claimed loss of love and affection from his James, but the judge stated that was not a “recognizable form of damages.” In response to the decision, Stovell noted in an email that he disagreed with the judges’ opinion and voiced that his claims were not usual and had been treated as being a typical case.

Where is Leicester Bryce Stovell now?

In the years that have followed the entire situation, it has been plenty of downhill moments in Stovell’s life.

He went the route of suing James against for defamation in 2013 as he claimed this time around that the star forward’s comments about his absent father made Stovell look bad because of the first lawsuit. The case was dismissed as the judge believed it was ridiculous and had missed the relevant time limit to bring that lawsuit forward.

Stovell also went through some severe troubles as he the District of Columbia Court of Appeals stated in 2018 that his misconduct in 2013 and 2014 regarding that he had misappropriated client funds and other misconduct with four different situations that resulted in him being disbarred.

It was a silly situation that caught some national attention several years ago; that was another legal matter that James and his family are more than happy to put behind them.