CHICAGO — A federal judge has sent the Southeastern Conference to the sidelines in one of several ongoing lawsuits involving college students who suffered concussions while playing sports at NCAA schools.
Jamie Richardson, a former football player for the University of Florida, filed a class action against the SEC and NCAA in the Southern District of Indiana, which ultimately was transferred to Chicago. In an opinion issued March 30, Judge John Z. Lee granted the SEC’s motion to dismiss, but largely rejected similar requests from the NCAA.
In August, Lee signed off on a settlement under which the NCAA agreed to spend $70 million for a medical monitoring program for current and former college athletes, and to institute other “corrective measures” to better address athletes’ health and safety at official NCAA-sanctioned games and events. Lawyers involved in that litigation, which started in 2011, collected more than $14 million in fees from that deal.
Richardson, who was a wide receiver at Florida from 1994 to 1996, said he sustained concussive and subconcussive hits during practices and games. The NCAA and SEC lacked adequate treatment, safety protocols and guidelines for letting athletes return to the field, Richardson claimed. “Richardson now suffers from severe daily headaches, memory loss, dizziness and other debilitating symptoms,” Lee's ruling stated.
The SEC argued the Indiana court lacked general jurisdiction over an Alabama-based conference with no members or games in Indiana, where the NCAA is headquartered. Richardson noted the SEC has nationwide broadcasting agreements, generating millions of dollars of revenue. However, Lee said those broadcasts don’t establish Indiana as having any greater relationship with the SEC than any other state, even though the University of Kentucky’s media market includes portions of Indiana.
Lee also agreed with the SEC’s position on specific jurisdiction. During Richardson’s playing career, the NCAA was headquartered in Kansas. After the NCAA relocated in 2000, Lee said, “SEC employees have traveled to Indiana to attend meetings conducted by the NCAA, but none of these meetings related to Richardson or the regulation of football during the time that Richardson played at UF.”
Richardson’s claims of fraudulent concealment and negligence against the SEC don’t identify actions taken in or directed at Indiana, Lee said, and since he “failed to make a colorable showing of personal jurisdiction, his request for jurisdictional discovery is denied.”
The NCAA said Richardson’s fraudulent concealment claim should be dismissed because Florida has a 12-year limit on such claims, or because his complaint lacked sufficient details. Lee rejected the first argument because Richardson alleged the NCAA “knowingly withheld from him crucial information regarding the long-term consequences of the repetitive brain injuries he had sustained as a football player at UF until at least 2010.”
Lee also said Richardson’s fraud pleadings were sufficiently detailed to withstand dismissal, as were his claims of breach of express and implied contract. Although the NCAA argued the complaint had “only baseless legal conclusions and vague factual allegations,” Lee said the complaint included details about shortcomings in various iterations of NCAA’s Sports Medicine Handbook, as well as the NCAA constitution, bylaws and regulations that athletes were compelled to obey under a written agreement as a condition of participation.
Richardson made similar allegations about the express, written agreements between the NCAA and Florida regarding athlete safety that formed the basis of his breach of an express contract as a third-party beneficiary, which Lee also declined to dismiss.
Lee did agree to the NCAA’s request to dismiss one aspect of Richardson’s complaint - his unjust enrichment claim made as an alternative to his breach of contract allegations. Lee said Florida law does not allow such a claim because “the benefit that Richardson claims to have conferred upon the NCAA is too attenuated from his own actions.”
Richardson has been represented in the action by attorneys Jay Edelson, of Edelson P.C., of Chicago, and Sol Weiss, of Anapol Weiss, of Philadelphia.
The SEC has been defended by attorney Robert W. Fuller and others with the firm of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, of Charlotte, N.C.
The NCAA has been represented by attorney Mark Mester and others with the firm of Latham & Watkins, of Chicago.