Report: Judge grants University of Miami’s motion for summary judgment in Al Golden breach of contract suit

Mark down one final loss for Al Golden relating to his time at Miami.

According to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, a federal judge granted the University of Miami’s motion for summary judgment this week, ending the lawsuit filed by Golden to recoup over $3 million following his dismissal during the 2015 season.

For those that aren’t aware, a judge will grant a motion for summary judgment (which is filed during the pre-trial/discovery phase of the case) only when there is “no genuine issue or dispute at to any material fact.” If there is even a scintilla of proof to the contrary, no matter how small, the judge must deny summary judgment and continue with the case. The court must also look at the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment was granted (in this case, Golden), and give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences deductible from the evidence. Basically, the court is saying that, looking at it from the light best to Golden, there is no evidence that he’s put forward to meet one of the elements he must prove to win his case.

That’s a very high standard, which speaks to the weakness of his original claim. According to Schlabach, US District Court Judge Darrin P. Gayles affirmed and adopted the original recommendation and report from the federal magistrate court finding that the third amended contract is unambiguous in that the buyout payment was the dollar amount reflected for the year of termination and DOES NOT include a summation of remaining years. The court specifically noted “the Third Amendment is unambiguous and not susceptible to multiple interpretations”. Ouch.

Golden will have 30 days from the date the order granting summary judgment was filed to file an appeal. If he doesn’t, the case is officially over. If he does, he’s going to have to convince a federal appellate court panel that his argument legally has merit, where a federal judge has said it doesn’t.

As such, it looks like the University of Miami can FINALLY close the book on one Al Golden.