PSU Lawsuits
PSU Lawsuits
Excerpt from TMQ Commentary
Originally Published: August 13, 2013
By Gregg Easterbrook | ESPN.com
When Will the Penn State Situation Stop Getting Worse?:
In January, as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over its Penn State fine, your columnist called the action "a transparent publicity stunt." During the offseason, a judge tossed the case out of court, finding cursory reading showed Corbett's claims "not plausible." A One L student would have known the lawsuit had no chance, owing to Corbett's lack of standing. TMQ notes again what he noted in January: If Gov. Corbett thinks the courts should be used for taxpayer-subsidized self-promotion stunts, this calls into question whether he was competent when he was Pennsylvania attorney general.
Now there's another publicity-stunt lawsuit against the NCAA, filed in the offseason by the Paterno family and a few others. The suit claims a tort based on the NCAA's enforcement of its own rules and also claims the NCAA defamed Joe Paterno. This seems another One L mistake -- generally, the dead cannot be defamed. A few states allow slander litigation regarding the deceased; Pennsylvania is not one.
At any rate Paterno was an "all-purpose public figure" under state law and thus nearly impossible to defame. The references to Paterno in the NCAA sanctions decision appear factual. Even if they can be proved false, NCAA claims are backed by a report supervised by a former federal judge, rendering it close to inconceivable Paterno's estate could prove the claims were calculated malice or knowing falsehood.
This same logic would seem to suggest former Penn State president Graham Spanier won't prevail in his defamation suit against the judge, Louis Freeh. As president of Pennsylvania's largest public university, Spanier was a public figure under state law. Even if accusations in the Freeh report could be proved factually wrong, it is difficult to believe Freeh was acting out of malicious desire to harm Spanier personally, which is the sort of bar that public figures must clear to recover in libel suits regarding their official duties.
Like the Gov. Corbett lawsuit, the Paterno family lawsuit should get the ejection-seat treatment from the legal system. It is hard to see how the estate of a deceased person has standing to sue a private organization over administrative rules agreed to by a third party. Penn State voluntarily joined the NCAA and voluntarily signed contracts saying the college would abide by NCAA sanctions if issued. Paterno voluntarily went to work for an institution that he knew full well was bound by these strictures. As for the members of the Penn State board of trustees who joined the suit, they should sit in on a One L class. Law is clear that boards of organizations must act collectively in court, members may not act individually. The real issue here seems to be that NCAA action ruins the marketing value of Paterno iconography, which his estate inherited. Today no advertiser wants to pay the family a fee for a JoePa image, and the family is hopping mad about that. Time and again since the scandal began, Paterno's heirs have presented themselves as high and mighty. The more the public learns about Paterno's family, the worse Joe Paterno looks in retrospect.
Originally Published: August 13, 2013
By Gregg Easterbrook | ESPN.com
When Will the Penn State Situation Stop Getting Worse?:
In January, as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over its Penn State fine, your columnist called the action "a transparent publicity stunt." During the offseason, a judge tossed the case out of court, finding cursory reading showed Corbett's claims "not plausible." A One L student would have known the lawsuit had no chance, owing to Corbett's lack of standing. TMQ notes again what he noted in January: If Gov. Corbett thinks the courts should be used for taxpayer-subsidized self-promotion stunts, this calls into question whether he was competent when he was Pennsylvania attorney general.
Now there's another publicity-stunt lawsuit against the NCAA, filed in the offseason by the Paterno family and a few others. The suit claims a tort based on the NCAA's enforcement of its own rules and also claims the NCAA defamed Joe Paterno. This seems another One L mistake -- generally, the dead cannot be defamed. A few states allow slander litigation regarding the deceased; Pennsylvania is not one.
At any rate Paterno was an "all-purpose public figure" under state law and thus nearly impossible to defame. The references to Paterno in the NCAA sanctions decision appear factual. Even if they can be proved false, NCAA claims are backed by a report supervised by a former federal judge, rendering it close to inconceivable Paterno's estate could prove the claims were calculated malice or knowing falsehood.
This same logic would seem to suggest former Penn State president Graham Spanier won't prevail in his defamation suit against the judge, Louis Freeh. As president of Pennsylvania's largest public university, Spanier was a public figure under state law. Even if accusations in the Freeh report could be proved factually wrong, it is difficult to believe Freeh was acting out of malicious desire to harm Spanier personally, which is the sort of bar that public figures must clear to recover in libel suits regarding their official duties.
Like the Gov. Corbett lawsuit, the Paterno family lawsuit should get the ejection-seat treatment from the legal system. It is hard to see how the estate of a deceased person has standing to sue a private organization over administrative rules agreed to by a third party. Penn State voluntarily joined the NCAA and voluntarily signed contracts saying the college would abide by NCAA sanctions if issued. Paterno voluntarily went to work for an institution that he knew full well was bound by these strictures. As for the members of the Penn State board of trustees who joined the suit, they should sit in on a One L class. Law is clear that boards of organizations must act collectively in court, members may not act individually. The real issue here seems to be that NCAA action ruins the marketing value of Paterno iconography, which his estate inherited. Today no advertiser wants to pay the family a fee for a JoePa image, and the family is hopping mad about that. Time and again since the scandal began, Paterno's heirs have presented themselves as high and mighty. The more the public learns about Paterno's family, the worse Joe Paterno looks in retrospect.
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KirkHerbstreit
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Re: PSU Lawsuits
I think the Joe Paterno hero woshippers at Penn State are maddening, but I have to laugh at people like Greg Easterbrook and others who flame the Paterno's for defending their father. I would love to see Greg or anyone who flames the PAterno's for pursuing this if their father, mother, or family member were in the same position and labeled guilty as charged based from some assumptions that were made in emails. The Paterno's are just doing what any family member would do with a loved one. I'm not saying Paterno is guilty or innocent, but there is not enough evidence for a family member to throw him under the bus and move on.