June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork sued the Yale Club of New York City for more than $1 million, claiming he tripped and fell because of the club's negligence as he ascended a dais to give a speech.

Bork, 80, a former Yale Law School professor, said the club was grossly negligent for failing to provide steps or a handrail between the floor and dais at an event for the New Criterion magazine last June, according to a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.

``Because of the unreasonable height of the dais, without stairs or a handrail, Mr. Bork fell backwards as he attempted to mount the dais, striking his left leg on the side of the dais and striking his head on a heat register,'' he said in the complaint.

Bork is seeking more than $1 million in damages and punitive damages. The fall caused a ``large hematoma,'' or swelling, on his leg that burst, requiring surgery and months of physical therapy, and it left him with a limp, he said in the complaint.

``There were dozens of witnesses to the incident, and Judge Bork suffered serious injuries as a result of the Yale Club's gross negligence,'' Bork's lawyer, Randy Mastro of Los Angeles- based Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, said in an interview.

Bork was a speaker at a dinner in honor of New Criterion co- founder Hilton Kramer and to launch the publication's 25th anniversary, magazine office manager Cricket Farnsworth said. Bork gave his speech after the fall, she said.

`Excruciating Pain'

Timothy Hill, a spokesman for the Yale Club, which on its Web site calls itself a ``historic clubhouse'' for Yale alumni, declined to comment.

Bork claims the Yale Club was grossly negligent for not having a ``safe dais and stairs,'' a supporting handrail or any other ``reasonable support feature.''

``Bork suffered excruciating pain as a result of this injury and was largely immobile during the months in which he received physical therapy,'' he said in the complaint.

Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court failed in 1987 after Democrats in Congress and others opposed the conservative legal scholar. At the time of his nomination by then-President Ronald Reagan, he served as a federal appeals court judge in Washington.

Bork, a Yale Law School teacher for more than 15 years before his appointment to the bench, was rejected by the Senate by a 58-42 vote after critics said his legal views were too extreme.

Punitive Damages

Bork didn't ask for a specific amount of punitive damages in his lawsuit. In a June 2002 article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Bork suggested there might be instances where punitive damage awards are excessive.

``Proposals, such as placing limits or caps on punitive damages, or eliminating joint or strict liability, which may once have been clearly understood as beyond Congress's power, may now be constitutionally appropriate,'' Bork and a co-author wrote in an article that discussed Congress's power to regulate commerce.

In a 1995 opinion piece published in the Washington Times, Bork and Theodore Olson, who later became a top Justice Department official, criticized what they called the ``expensive, capricious and unpredictable'' civil justice system in the U.S.

``Today's merchant enters the marketplace with trepidation -- anticipating from the civil justice system the treatment that his ancestors experienced with the Barbary pirates,'' they wrote.

The Supreme Court in February tightened the constitutional limits on punitive damages, setting aside a $79.5 million award in a smoker case against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit.

The case is Bork v. Yale Club, 07-cv-4826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 7, 2007 17:32 EDT