Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
I am most interested to see if the legal system allows Roy Williams in the first person is allowed to testify on behalf of Roy Williams in the third person, e.g.
"I have known Roy Williams all of my life and there isn't a dadgum dishonest bone in that man's pale blue body."
Legal opinions on this?
Imagine the fun of getting ol' roy to actually answer a question. He would likely vacillate from diatribe to self-pity, offering statements that were in no way responsive to the question. I picture a question being read back repeatedly, and roy and his attorneys, with straight faces, stating that the question was answered. Next step would be teleconference with judge or magistrate, resulting in instruction to ol' roy to answer. More obfuscation. Motion to compel with transcription of first deposition. Second deposition delayed by multiple delays due to "scheduling" conflicts, probably ending in ol' roy breaking down in tears, unable to continue. Another motion to compel (with request for sanctions).
After months and months:
Q: "Please state your name for the record"
A: "Roy Williams"
In thinking about it, this will be a difficult class to get certidfied. All putative plaintiffs need commonality of claims, and here there are so many individualized representations and impacts -- again I need to read it but my gut says this ultimately does not go far.
Bitcoins. My kryptonite.
BigWayne noted in the recently closed scandal thread:
Those PR bills are gonna look small after they get done defending the lawsuits.
Which raises an additional source of amusement. The communications with the PR firm are not privileged. Relevance is the only argument.
Common questions have to predominate the whole claim. It's why some environmental claims are often difficult class actions. You may have common duties, breach of duties, and causation, but such individualized impacts that you essentially need a hearing for each putative class member.
Fraud is hard too unless based on a common written document (like a loan application) because the representations and reliance necessary to establish fraud varies from person to person.
But I have not seen the complaint yet so take this all with a suitably-sized lumpage of sodium chloride.
Unless there is something unusual about this complaint (I haven't seen it), this will be an "opt out" class action. That means if the class is certified, everyone fitting the description of a class member will automatically be in the class of plaintiffs, represented by the lead plaintiff McAdoo and his lawyers, and bound by the result, unless a person opts out to pursue his/her own suit. That means that, if the class is certified as all students who took sham classes, all 3100 would automatically be in, meaning all their sports would be relevant.
UNC-CH's strategy will surely be (in order) to seek dismissal, fight class certification or limit the class to (say) football. To certify a class, McAdoo's lawyers will have to show that his claims are typical of a such a large number of peoples' claims that trying them altogether would be efficient. UNC-CH will argue that each student's situation is different, making a class action an inappropriate means of resolving them.
If a class is certified to include all 3100 former students, Roy's definitely in for some distractions.
These big suits against state entities have lots of tricky places for an inexperienced team of lawyers to fall down, so I hope McAdoo brought the A team.
I'd really like to see the complaint. I'm assuming that this is being brought under the North Carolina Tort Claims Act, or McAdoo would have an 11th Amendment problem seeking money damages in federal court. Most tort claims acts require--as a prerequisite to suit--timely notice to the defendant of intent to sue. That typically means sending the notice within a certain number of days after the tort was committed (or the fraud was uncovered). In other tort claims acts I'm familiar with, the failure to submit that notice in a timely fashion (and the time frame is typically short, like 180 days) is a complete bar to suing. I wonder if McAdoo sent a timely tort claim notice or whether that's going to be a point of contention in the motion. Or whether he's even relying on the tort claims act.
Wasn't McAdoo part of the group that filed a complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the US Dept. of Ed several months ago? Maybe he's spring boarding this class action off that complaint... Has anyone seen a copy of UNC's response to that complaint? If the CRD doesn't just dismiss the complaint out of hand, the University is required to submit a response.
Again, a copy of the complaint would help clarify McAdoo's strategy and tell us whether the thing looks viable or weak.
I have a copy, but I can't figure out how to upload. I get a message that says file size too large
"Just like you man. I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase." Omar Little
It is an 88.8 KB pdf doc
"Just like you man. I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase." Omar Little
The proposed class is all North Carolina scholarship football players between 1993 and 2011.
Per CBS:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...ademic-scandal
The lawsuit alleges North Carolina breached its contract with football players; violated the state's consumer protection law regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce; and committed fraud by recruiting athletes through falsely representing they would receive a legitimate education if they enrolled as a football player. ...
The lawsuit states McAdoo is seeking "actual damages" for the class and "injunctive relief including, but not limited to, a court appointee reviewing the curriculum and course selection for all football student-athletes and the provision of four-year guaranteed scholarships to all football student-athletes going forward."
This could be why unc announced in July that all athletic scholarships will be guaranteed "for life," meaning any former scholarship athlete who didn't finish his or her degree may return to school. Kind of cuts through the actual damage argument.
Wow!
Aren't you guys a little curious about from who this is coming from?
McAdoo, the guy who could have been a lottery pick had he come out his freshman year. Instead he stayed and his NBA stock regressed year after year, until he couldn't even get drafted.
That would make anybody unhappy, I imagine.
No NBA, no NBA money. Think maybe he's trying to cash out with this lawsuit?