GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Billy Napier and two co-defendants on Tuesday filed motions to dismiss quarterback Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit relating to a failed title, picture and likeness deal value practically $14 million.
Napier, Florida booster/automotive know-how businessman Hugh Hathcock and Marcus Castro-Walker, this system’s former director of participant engagement, requested a U.S. District Court docket in Pensacola to dismiss the grievance.
Napier’s legal professional, Hank Coxe III of the Bedell Agency in Jacksonville, argued in a 29-page response that details are “sorely missing from the grievance.”
“Nothing alleged within the grievance helps the notion that Napier participated in any wrongdoing,” Coxe wrote. “Nowhere does the grievance adequately allege, for instance, that Napier knew about no matter occurred between Rashada, his ‘NIL brokers’ and the Gator Collective, LLC.
“In truth, the grievance makes clear that Napier couldn’t have defrauded Rashada, because the sole assertion attributed to Napier is alleged to have been made after Rashada had already deserted the Miami NIL deal.”
Hathcock’s legal professional, Jason Peterson of Clark Partington in Pensacola, wrote in a 36-page response that the lawsuit accommodates “in depth authorized conclusions and hypothesis” and lacks “the allegations of reality obligatory for his claims in opposition to Hathcock.”
“Some variation of the phrase ‘promise’ seems at the very least 50 instances within the grievance, but there is no such thing as a breach-of-contract depend,” Peterson wrote.
Castro-Walker’s legal professional argued in 18 pages that his consumer can’t be held personally liable or named as a celebration defendant below sovereign immunity guidelines, including that Castro-Walker was performing as an agent of the state or any of its subdivision.
Legal professional Hal Lewis, primarily based in Tallahassee, additionally accused Rashada’s lawsuit of “attributing meanings to statements and actions which are the precise reverse of what they look like on their face.”
“Even an intensive re-reading of the grievance after understanding how the story ends would fail to uncover even a single bread crumb of proof that even remotely supported the ending,” Lewis wrote.
Velocity Automotive Options, LLC, the fourth and ultimate defendant, had not filed a movement to dismiss by Tuesday afternoon.
Rashada’s lawsuit filed in Could accuses Napier, Castro-Walker, Hathcock and Velocity of fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement, aiding and abetting fraud, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, negligent misrepresentations, tortious inference with a enterprise relationship or contract, aiding and abetting tortious interference and vicarious legal responsibility. The grievance requested a jury trial and damages of at the very least $10 million.
The NCAA started investigating Florida in 2023 relating to Rashada’s recruitment. The NCAA requested the varsity to not conduct its personal investigation and mentioned it will notify the establishment “quickly relating to the projected timeline of the investigation.”
However, in March, the NCAA halted investigations into booster-backed collectives or different third events making NIL compensation offers with Division I athletes following lawsuits. The choice got here after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit introduced by the attorneys normal of Tennessee and Virginia. The antitrust go well with challenged NCAA guidelines in opposition to recruiting inducements, saying they inhibit athletes’ capability to money in on their movie star and fame.
The lawsuit, although, landed the Gators again within the highlight.
Rashada, who threw for five,275 yards and 59 touchdowns at Pittsburg (California) Excessive Faculty, initially agreed to play for Miami within the fall of 2022. In accordance with the lawsuit, the Hurricanes promised Rashada a $9.5 million NIL deal.
However Napier and Hathcock lured Rashada away from Miami with a $13.85 million NIL deal that violated NCAA bylaws, the go well with mentioned. Rashada’s deal was with the Gator Collective, an impartial fundraising group that was loosely tied to the college and paid student-athletes to be used of their NIL. The Gator Collective has since been disbanded.
The lawsuit accuses Napier of vouching for the Gator Collective and promising Rashada $1 million on signing day.
The 37-page grievance says Rashada “tolerated” a number of delays in getting paid earlier than in the end being left with “no religion within the UF soccer workforce’s management and the people who had always lied to him.”
Rashada was granted his release a month after his NIL deal fell through. He later signed with his father’s alma mater, Arizona State. He spent one season in Tempe earlier than touchdown at Florida’s largest rival, Georgia.
Picture: Rashada in 2023, when he performed for Arizona State. (AP Picture/Ross D. Franklin, File)
AP author Mark Lengthy produced this report.
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