Lawyer Sacrifices Own Race to Help Collapsed Marathoner Sue Organizers
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In an act of selflessness that’s gone viral, a lawyer running in Sunday’s Corbin City Marathon sacrificed his own race to stop and help a fellow runner sue the event’s organizers for gross negligence.
Benny Stulwicz, 49, collapsed only a few hundred meters shy of the finish line, prompting gasps from onlookers.
“He fell pretty hard,” said Ann Kelsey, a spectator who saw Stulwicz go down. “A couple of race volunteers ran to help, but the other runners just streamed right past him. Until this one guy stopped.”
That guy, as luck would have it, was Arnie Becker, a longtime marathoner and partner at the firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak. In a video that’s been shared at least 18,00 times now, Becker is seen approaching Stulwicz with a business card, whispering into his ear, and then helping him up.
Together, the two men would walk slowly to the finish line, where, in an emotional moment, Becker would fit Stulwicz with a neck brace and announce loudly that he would immediately file a personal injury suit on his behalf—pro bono.
“It was so incredible to watch,” said Michael Kuzak, another finish line spectator. “This man sacrifices his own race to help another human being, a total stranger, file a civil suit. It really restored my faith in humanity.”
Where Becker got the neck brace remains a mystery.
Reached for comment, Becker brushed aside any suggestions that he was a hero.
“I did what anyone would do,” he said. “I saw a fellow human being in distress clearly due to the negligence of event organizers, in this case the Corbin City Marathon and its owner, Bernsen Event Productions, LLC, and I did what I could to help.”
Becker added that if the race organizers wished to avoid a long, drawn-out, costly legal battle and were prepared to settle the matter, he would be “willing to entertain all reasonable offers.”
For his part, Stulwicz directed all questions to his lawyer.
