I have been provided the opportunity to sit in on a class taught by ESPN and Sports Illustrated writer Andrew Brandt that is called “Business and Legal Aspects of Professional Sports.” Brandt is teaching the class through Villanova University’s online offering, which makes it easy for anyone to access the content.
A couple of years ago, many former National Football League players including Ray Lewis, Santana Moss, Clinton Portis, Lito Sheppard and Fred Taylor filed a lawsuit against Branch Banking and Trust Company, more commonly known as BB&T. The players claimed that BB&T wrongfully allowed for unauthorized withdrawals from their respective bank accounts and that some accounts were even opened in their names without permission. These actions led to heavy losses for the players; they then sought relief through the filing of a legal action.
The original lawsuit asked for roughly $53 million in damages. One of the plaintiffs, NFL running back Frank Gore, settled earlier this year for a major discount — $1,000. His original claim was for $1.6 million, which was later increased to $3.4 million.
Now the remaining plaintiffs are heading to trial on their main claim that BB&T was negligent in allowing the unauthorized financial transactions. The remaining plaintiffs have been dwindled down from sixteen to six players: Ray Lewis, Clinton Portis, Santana Moss, Lito Sheppard, Fred Taylor and Derrick Gaffney. The two week trial has begun with a lengthy jury selection process in place. Moss, Sheppard and Taylor have chosen to have a bench trial as opposed to having a jury decide the fate of BB&T.
The plaintiffs will be required to prove that BB&T owed them a duty of care to act in a certain manner to otherwise protect the players from the claimed wrongful distributions of their monies. Thereafter, they will need to show that BB&T breached that duty by failing to exercise reasonable care and that but for BB&T’s wrongful action, the players’ damages would not have occurred. Finally, they must demonstrate that BB&T should have foreseen the harms that would result from their allegedly wrongful actions, and that the players have been actually damaged. The final element should be the easiest to prove for the plaintiffs.
If you’re interested in learning more about Villanova’s online sports program, please visit VillanovaU.com/SABSponsor.
