A Maryland state appeals court has reversed and remanded part of a lower court’s ruling involving a concussion claim brought by a former student athlete against the NCAA.
Specifically, the appeals court’s ruling finds that the NCAA in subject to jurisdiction in Maryland.
“The claims raised in this action relate to the NCAA’s activities—issuing rules, standards, and other guidelines for college football—that are purposefully directed at Maryland,” wrote the appeals court. “Due process will not be violated if the NCAA is required to answer the claims that an athlete was injured allegedly as a result of its rulemaking activities, in the courts of a state targeted by those rules. … the plaintiff established an adequate link between his claims and those forum-directed activities.”
By way of background, Brandon Haw, a Maryland resident, brought suit against the NCAA, alleging that he suffers from neurodegenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma that he sustained while playing college football.
The plaintiff attended Fairmont Heights High School in Capitol Heights, graduating in 1999. During high school, he distinguished himself as a talented football player, playing several positions, including defensive back and kick return specialist.
Beginning in the spring of 1998, when he was 17 years old, several NCAA Division I colleges attempted to recruit Haw to play college football. Over the next year, these colleges directed hundreds of communications by phone, letter, or email to Haw and to his father. Recruiters from at least two of these colleges personally attended his high school sporting events in Maryland. At one such event, he and his father spoke with the chief recruiter for Rutgers University. Haw and his father lived in Maryland throughout this recruitment process.
In December 1998, the head football coach of Rutgers University mailed a letter to Haw’s home address, offering him “a full NCAA Grant-In-Aid scholarship” upon his completion of “academiccriteria set by the NCAA and Rutgers.” At the same time, a Rutgers recruiting coordinator sent a letter to his parents, explaining certain terms of the scholarship offer. Haw formally accepted this scholarship offer at his high school on national signing day in February 1999.
From 1999 through 2003, Haw played football at Rutgers University as a cornerback and kick return specialist. Throughout his last three seasons, he played as a starter for the Rutgers defense. During one year in which he could not play in games because of an injury, he continued to practice with the team.
While attending college at Rutgers, Haw lived in New Jersey, but maintained his permanent residence in Maryland. After college, he played professional football for a few years before returning to Maryland. He has resided in Baltimore City since 2007.
In the years after his football career ended, Haw began to exhibit symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma.
The complaint alleges that Haw “suffers from neurodegenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma that he sustained while playing college football. The plaintiff alleges that, despite possessing extensive knowledge of the dangers of brain disease caused by playing football, the NCAA failed to inform players of the dangers known to the NCAA, failed to establish rules of the game to make it reasonably safe, and failed to establish a protocol for the diagnosis and treatment of concussive injuries.”
After service of the complaint, the NCAA filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, which ultimately led to the instant opinion. On May 11, 2022, the circuit court conducted a hearing to consider arguments on the NCAA’s motion to dismiss. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court announced that it would grant the NCAA’s motion and would dismiss the complaint.
And while the appeals court sided with the NCAA on two jurisdictional arguments, it held for the plaintiff on the matter of personal jurisdiction.
“We conclude that due process principles do not prohibit a Maryland trial court from exercising personal jurisdiction over the NCAA with respect to the claims raised in Haw’s complaint,” it wrote. “The NCAA has purposefully directed its rulemaking activities at Maryland (as well as other states). The claims raised by Haw, a Maryland resident who claims that he sustained at least part of his injuries in Maryland, are sufficiently related to those forum-directed activities. Finally, the NCAA has failed to show that the exercise of personal jurisdiction in these circumstances would be constitutionally unreasonable.
“The circuit court correctly concluded that Haw had failed to establish a basis for imputing the contacts of Rutgers University or other NCAA members to the NCAA itself.
“We differ with the circuit court in our evaluation of the third ground relied upon by Haw, his contention that the NCAA is subject to specific jurisdiction based on its own contacts with Maryland. The claims raised in this action relate to the NCAA’s activities—issuing rules, standards, and other guidelines for college football—that are purposefully directed at Maryland. Due process will not be violated if the NCAA is required to answer the claims that an athlete was injured allegedly as a result of its rulemaking activities, in the courts of a state targeted by those rules.”
Haw v. NCAA; App. Ct. Md.; No. 866, September Term, 2022; 2/1/24
