Posted on 03/03/2005 8:39:03 PM PST by ConservativeStatement
RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court on Tuesday awarded $350,000 in attorney's fees to a former Duke University woman football kicker who had won a $2 million judgment from the school and then lost it on appeal.
Heather Sue Mercer in 2000 won $2 million in a sex-discrimination case against the school, claiming she was cut from Duke's football team because she was a woman. Duke argued on appeal that sex discrimination law does not include punitive damages, and in 2002 the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, leaving Mercer with just $1 in compensatory damages.
The 4th Cicuit sent the case back to district court to determine if Mercer deserved to have her attorney's fees paid. The court granted Mercer the $350,000, and Duke appealed.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that while Mercer was awarded only $1 in compensatory damages, she was entitled to higher attorney's fees "given the nature of this litigation."
"Mercer's claim was a novel one that established a new rule of law with regard to liability under Title IX," the appeals court wrote. The court said because Duke allowed Mercer on the team, it could not use the single-sex contact-sports exemption, which doesn't require schools to allow men and women to compete together.
"Mercer's case was the first to so hold, and it will serve as guidance for other schools facing the issue," the court wrote.
After former Blue Devil football coach Fred Goldsmith allowed Mercer, a 1998 graduate, to join the football team, she said he would not allow her to dress out for games or practice on a scrimmage team against Duke's first-team players. She also said he once suggested she should be more interested in beauty pageants than football.
I'm curious.Did she ever say whether or not she wanted to dress out and shower with the team?Was that part of her lawsuit as well?
I found this on a Google search:
http://lw.bna.com/lw/19990803/991014.htm
Bwahahahahahaha!
I'll be a dissenting opinion.
If the girl wanted to play and if she could kick, she should have been allowed to play.
I don't know how the dressing out could have been handled, but I respect the girl and I agree with the judgement.
There is a girl who plays for a high school (girls') baskeball team in a hick town near me. I doubt any of you would want to come up against her. I sure wouldn't. She doesn't miss.
Nor would I ever want to mess with a female cop.
Ya gotta like how the legal system takes care of their own.
She gets a million. I think she should have got the other million, but a mill isn't too bad.
I think her attorneys deserved their $350,000. If I recall correctly, this case goes back to 1998. Her attorneys probably have yet to see dollar one, and I'm sure they have put in thousands of hours.
What I like best is that Duke most likely spent a whole lot of money defending this. In my opinion, they were wrong from the beginning.
ROTFLMAO!!!
Good one. ;)
Or was the million for "pain and suffering"?
Whatever, you think she deserved it.
I don't really know. That could be. It could also be that she would have received a scholarship and other benefits from Duke if she had been allowed to play.
I agree that a million seems like a lot. Then again, there may well have been some tangible things involved.
The question in my mind is whether she could kick.
In my (admittedly) home-spun logic, it seems like they originally let her join the team, thinking that she could not kick. No big deal. She won't be playing anyway, right? She was the token chick.
Then it turned out that she could kick.
Duke then had a problem. They had to either let her play or get rid of her. They chose the latter.
If Duke can prove she was unqualified, I think they had every right to cut her. But it doesn't look that way to me. I think she got cut because she was qualified and a female. I don't like that.
Or was the million for "pain and suffering"?
There was, at first, a second million for pain and suffering, but that was knocked out on appeal. That was not at issue in the current case. The question was only her attorney fees.
Whatever, you think she deserved it.
Yes, I do.
What I think is that Duke messed up. If they let her on the team to begin with, she should have been allowed to play. She should have been given an equal chance.
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