After an 8-day trial, a jury in the Hennepin County (MN) District Court awarded a former Oklahoma State University basketball assistant coach $1.25 million in his breach of contract trial against the University of Minnesota.
Jimmy Williams was suing the university after men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith verbally offered him a salary job with the team back in 2007. That offer was later rescinded by Athletic Director Joel Maturi after he learned of Williams’ distant past with regard to recruiting violations.
However, by the time Williams had been informed of the change of heart, he had already resigned his OSU position, which paid him $200,000 a year, and made arrangements to sell his home in Stillwater.
Williams sued the University of Minnesota in June 2009 to collect lost wages. A Hennepin County District Court judge dismissed the case at first (http://www.hackneypublications.com/sla/archive/000650.php). However, the case was brought back to life when the Minnesota State Court of Appeals reinstated a portion of the suit. The court ruled that Williams’ claim of “negligent misrepresentation” could continue and that the trial should focus on whether or not the information provided to Williams regarding a job offer led to substantial losses.
The jury reportedly had to answer the key question of whether Smith falsely represented to the plaintiff that he had absolute authority to hire assistants.
“I’m just happy right now that the jury saw that I was telling the truth, and now I can move on with my life and my career,” said Williams, who was represented by Donald Chance Mark Jr. of the Minnesota-based law firm Fafinski Mark & Johnson. “Hopefully in the near future I’m going to be back doing what I love, and that’s coaching.”
Mark Rotenberg, the university’s general counsel, said in a statement immediately after the verdict that Smith and Maturi did nothing wrong. “Refusing to hire Jimmy Williams was the right call, and the university stands behind these officials,” he said.
“Tubby Smith has never had a single major violation in his 30-plus years of coaching, and he’s never hired anyone with the history of multiple major NCAA violations like Jimmy Williams has. Under Joel Maturi, not a single Gophers coach has ever been hired with a record of major violations like Jimmy Williams has.”
After a couple days to reflect on the 7-member jury’s decision, Rotenberg said he will seek to remedy the “unjustified verdict” through post-trial motions and the appellate courts. He took a hard line when asked about the possibility of a settlement, noting that “the university is not in the position to be doling out public funds to people who don’t deserve them.”
ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan noted in a column that even though Williams won, “the entire case is more vindication for Tubby Smith and Joel Maturi than it is for Jimmy Williams. Smith and Maturi got to make a moral stand here. They got to say, hey, you know what? We’re not going to do things that way. In fact, we’re so committed to not doing things that way that we’re going to take this lawsuit to court and fight it there, in the public eye. I’m not sure this was the smartest financial decision. But if there was any doubt as to the Gophers’ commitment to avoiding NCAA penalties, it should pretty much die out today. Minnesota wants to stay so far away from NCAA sanctions it’s willing — sort of, anyway — to pay $1.25 million to do so. That’s the outward appearance here, which is why sometimes a loss is not actually a loss.”
