Friday, December 28, 2007

West Virginia University v. Richard Rodriguez

Update: For those looking for a copy of the complaint and the relevant employment contract documents in the case, read on. For those also interested in the federal removal jurisdiction questions at play, see the following original post and its comments, as well as this post (which links to a copy of the removal notice), this post discussing the alter-ego doctrine, and this post addressing WVU's motion to remand (and linking to the same and accompanying memo).

Update #2: WVU has filed an amended complaint adding a breach of contract claim after Rodriguez failed to make the first payment on the $4 million buyout. This post now has a link to the text of that document.




As those of you who are interested in such things certainly already know, WVU has filed a declaratory judgment action against Rich Rodriguez (hereinafter "The Rat Bastard" or "TRB") seeking a ruling that the university lived up to its obligations under TRB's employment contract and is entitled to liquidated damages of $4 million. For your perusing pleasure, I am posting a copy of the complaint, which has the contract documents attached as exhibits.

(Bonus content/pop quiz: True or False: TRB's lawyers can successfully remove this case to federal court. Best answer and cursory-but-correct-explanation wins an undetermined prize of little or no monetary value. Leave your answer --and e-mail address, if I don't know you-- in the comments).

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suppose the answer is true, only because the opposite seems too easy. So, working under that premise. . . .

I don't know if there is some oddball fed statute out there on either employment law or dec. judgments that allows for federal jurisdiction. I know I find crazy statutes all the time, but, in this case, I'm going to say no (mostly because I don't want to search).

I think the best bet for fed. jurisdiction is to say that coach was actually a citizen of Michigan at the time of the breach (or maybe it is the time of the lawsuit that controls). He certainly had the intent component, but did he have a physical presence? I don't know the latter, but he was probably in Michigan at some point. Who knows, maybe he has already moved in.

P.S. I have always thought he was overrated. Great recruiter, ok, but lousy play caller and never wins the really big games.

Hancock.Tom said...

The answer is of course they can remove. The question is will WVU be able to remand.

I'm not so sure. If, at the time of the breach, RRod was physically living in michigan with no plans to return to live in WV, then Alex might be right - Federal Court it is.

I'm not that experienced with the northern district, but I'm not sure removal is going to help him that much. I'm sure the ND guys are going to strictly construe the clear and unambigous terms of the contract, which say RRod has to pay 4 mil.

Brian said...

Tom:

Note that I said "successfully remove," which I define as a removal petition that could survive sua sponte review and a motion to remand. Indeed, I was actually going to go with just "remove" at first, but right before I posted I thought "some smartass will come along and point out that any removal petition gets a case to federal court until it's reviewed/challenged" and qualified the term.

(kidding, kidding)

As for the question, I'll keep it open for a while longer.

Anonymous said...

I'm doubtful on removal to Fed. jur. What is the basis? As far as I know, DickRod still permanently lives in WV, the contract was negotiated, drafted, delivered, and executed in WV. Moreover, I think that if he tried to claim that he's a Michigan resident, WVU could argue that he moved to create diversity.

Hancock.Tom said...

Anonymous is probably right... RRod is probably stuck in Judge Stone's courtroom in Morgantown.

Further, I can't find any of the contract provisions that RR can claim WVU breached. Did anyone else?

Anonymous said...

Do we know this is in front of Judge Stone? Has it been assigned?

This raises an interesting situation: Judge Stone is retiring at the end of 2008--what are the chnaces that, if he is sitting on this matter, it will still be pending when his term expires?

Brian said...

Tom:

The only thing that struck me was the Puskar Center language (page 38 of the pdf). The dates there seem to be off and I'm not sure what the correct timeline is, but I was under the impression that WVU was behind schedule.

My question, for any takers, is this: suppose TRB could show that WVU "substantially and materially" breached the agreements. Does his failure to give notice before quitting still trigger a liquidated damages award to WVU? It would not have under the original Agreement and the First Amendment, but in the Complaint WVU argues that it does under the Second Amendment. I'm not quite sure; TRB's counsel may be able to colorably argue that absence of notice only means that WVU doesn't have to pay TRB liquidate damages (see pages 30 and 31).

Brian said...

Regarding my question/quiz, good comments all. See my new post for my indecisive decision.

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