[rotationslim]

Sometimes you can't service both Justice AND mercy.

JUSTICE says GBTB... ball to Defense since offense touched it last, and it went out of bound.

MERCY says that clearly it is more fair to give ball back to offense, since they should not be penalized for Referee mistake.

So here is how one should handle that situation, satisfying both Justice & Mercy. (Tongue-in-cheek) follows:
1) Offensive (blue team)player trips over referee.. misses pass he would have otherwise caught.
2) Ball goes out of bounds.
3) Award ball to Defense (red team) as blue team was last to touch before it went OOB.
4) On red team throw-in, at last minute jump in front of player doing throw-in, causing ball to bounce off your chest and into blue team's hands.

--If I recall correctly that play was outlined in the casebook one year.. I think it was back in '98.. I would have to check to be sure.--