Education Law
$7.4 M Legal Bill Stuns Officials in Mich. Girls Sports Season Case
Posted Apr 22, 2008, 02:53 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
Officials at the Michigan High School Athletic Association are still reeling, weeks after a federal judge awarded $7.4 million in legal fees to the prevailing plaintiff in a 10-year-old case contending that Michigan's sports seasons discriminated against girls.
Now, saying that an award of prejudgment interest, in particular, came as a complete surprise, MHSAA officials contend that their organization may be bankrupted by the case, reports the Kalamazoo Gazette.
"MHSAA officials always have been aware they would have to pay the plaintiffs' fees and costs if the association lost the lawsuit. But in a written statement, MHSAA Executive Director John Roberts said the judgment 'exceeded even our worst-case scenario' and suggested the interest award was particularly unfair," the newspaper wrote.
Kristen Galles, the lead counsel for the plaintiff, Communities for Equity, a Grand Rapids-based group, expressed little sympathy for the defendant organization's plight. Even in 2001, three years after the discrimination suit was filed, the lawyers were willing to settle the case before trial with an agreement by MHSAA to comply, without seeking legal fees, she says. After Communities for Equity prevailed in a 2001 trial, the group offered to participate in a mediated settlement that would have significantly reduced the plaintiff's then-$2.5 million in attorney expenses.
Meanwhile, according to a written opinion by U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen, the MHSAA's hard-fought defense strategy, involving multiple motions and arguments, ran up the legal tab. "The time required to litigate increases when the defendant bitterly contests the case, forcing the plaintiffs to win their victory from rock to rock and from tree to tree," Enslen wrote. "Accordingly, MHSAA must reap what it has sown."
The judge "ruled against the association on every point of the suit in December 2001, finding that girls were being discriminated against in violation of the Constitution, the federal anti-discrimination law Title IX and a Michigan civil rights law," notes an earlier Associated Press story.
Only after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an MHSAA appeal in April 2007 did the case finally end, AP says.
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