An ISU boxing coach is suing the university for injuries he suffered in 2001.

Court papers filed on behalf of Terry Doud last week in the Story County District Court seek to recover money for loss of income, inability to perform normal personal functions and disabilities resulting from his fall in State Gym.

Doud maintains the lone handrail in a staircase came apart and caused his fall, according to the lawsuit.

Since the injury, Doud has continued to coach boxing at Iowa State.

Before the lawsuit, Doud had filed a claim with the State Appeal Board. After his appeal was denied, Doud and his attorney decided to file the lawsuit.

John Terrill has been Doud’s attorney since the first appeal and said the legal process was only the beginning.

“The university will be served [with a copy of the lawsuit] shortly,” Terrill said. “As far as the lawsuit, at some point, there would be a trial-setting conference if the parties cannot reach an agreement.”

The offices of Paul Tanakav, university counsel and Keith Bystrom, associate university counsel handling the case, said they had not been served with a copy of the lawsuit and refused further comment.

Terrill said there had been discussions with the university on settling the case out of court, but declined to discuss specifics.

“Those things are kept pretty close and are normally not public knowledge,” he said. “More often than not, cases like this are settled out of court.”

Terrill said he believes if the case goes to trial, it would take a year or longer.

Lynn Seiler, associate director for Facilities Planning and Management, said there are a variety of maintenance classifications at Iowa State.

“Preventative maintenance filters through depending on the need,” Seiler said. “But when stuff breaks, we try to get there and fix it.”

Seiler said larger projects that generally have a budget of more than $500 and are not high priority are placed on the deferred maintenance item project list. No maintenance is made until money is allocated for it.

“It’s a tremendous list and approaches $100 million,” he said.

He said some projects on hold for State Gym include replacing the windows and roof.