Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Carrington Lawsuit Settled

The Carrington lawsuit, the most significant of the lawsuits against Duke, was settled today. No settlement terms were released--but given the overt hostility of the 4th Circuit to the lawsuit, and the ruling by Judge Beaty affirming that the student bulletin and faculty handbook aren't legally worth the paper they're written on, the decision can't be seen as much of a surprise.

The McFadyen lawsuit, for the three plaintiffs represented by Bob Ekstrand, remains alive. This news nonetheless means that chances of Duke being held accountable in court for its mistreatment of its students are very slim indeed.

8 comments:

skwilli said...

Lawyers, layers and layers of lawyers. They will be the only people smiling at the end* of this debacle.

* "end" being a quite amorphous term.

Anonymous said...

If the courts don't think the civil rights of the lacrosse players were violated, and if their attorneys won't protest Beaty's rulings

(among others, that the players' race precludes their right to sue public officials; that a SANE has a duty to a "patient", but not to accused persons or even the court; that a contract isn't a contract; that Nifong should be taken seriously when he alleges $180 million in liabilities; etc.)

then I guess even a case as obvious as the Duke lacrosse case can be reduced to
microscopic proportions.

But now the people of the Fourth Circuit will have to live with Beaty's and the Fourth Circuit's rulings.

(And that, in a way, is also a kind of justice...)

Ray Blehar said...

You should have similar sympathy for Messrs. Curley, Schultz, and Spanier, who have also endured much harm due to the irresponsible actions of the Penn State Board of Trustees.

http://notpsu.blogspot.com/2013/02/press-release-only-12-of-freehs.html

Your statement about no factual errors in the Freeh Report was wrong. In fact, had Freeh investigated the crime scene, he would have concluded that the janitors testimony was a fabrication.

Read the report. A picture is worth a thousand words.

kcjohnson9 said...

Given that Sandusky was "convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, unlawful contact with minor, corruption of minors, endangering a child's welfare" for his contact with Victim 8 (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/22/breakdown-sandusky-verdicts-by-victim/)--the victim Id'd by the janitor's testimony, I'd hardly say that Freeh (whose report didn't use a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard) can be faulted for accepting the janitor's remarks.

sceptical said...

“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”

The Hollow Men

HidesigT.S. Eliot

Anonymous said...

Anyone have any intel on the payout here? A range would be fine.

Anonymous said...

"Anyone have any intel on the payout here? A range would be fine."

I'm sure the attorneys held out until they got their fees. (Was there anything else important to get in the settlements?)

sarc/off

Anonymous said...

This is horrifying news.