Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a response from the NCAA.
The legal duel between the Paterno estate and the NCAA appears to be heating up and entering a very active phase.
Just days after the NCAA’s lawyers announced plans to subpoena two of Joe Paterno’s children, attorneys for the Paterno estate are asking the courts to settle their lawsuit — claiming the NCAA didn’t follow the rules.
They claim the NCAA has essentially admitted it’s wrong because the athletic organization has not properly responded to allegations in earlier court filings.
For it’s part, the NCAA is battling back, accusing the Paterno estate of turning its back on the search for the truth, looking for victory on a technicality and a way out of a case “they cannot win” in a quest for money.
In the latest legal motion filed Monday morning, the Paterno’s attorneys say, “The only remaining issue for the Court and parties to litigate is the appropriate remedy for each of the claims against the NCAA.”
The estate of the late Joe Paterno, along with former football coaches Jay Paterno and William Kenney, is suing the NCAA in Centre County court. The plaintiffs claim that the NCAA’s actions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal significantly lessened the value of the Paterno estate. It also claims that the NCAA made it more difficult for Jay Paterno and Kenney to find coaching jobs.
In this latest filing, attorneys claim the NCAA was wrong when it failed to answer a number of allegations contained in the Paterno estate lawsuit, by issuing blanket denials. The filing claims the NCAA responded with a one-word comment, “Denied” to approximately one third of the 196 paragraphs of the second amended complaint.
“There is no excuse for the NCAA’s failure to comply with required Pennsylvania procedures,” says the filing, adding that the blanket denial is “highly prejudicial” because the plaintiffs and court are left to wonder which issues are in dispute.
The filing says the NCAA’s failure to provide specific denials is “no accident but a reflection of its overall strategy for litigating this case — cover up the real facts and delay this litigation and the NCAA’s day of reckoning as long as possible.”
Late Monday afternoon, the NCAA came out fighting It released the following statement from Donald Remy, the organizations chief legal officer:
“Upon the initial filing, plaintiffs claimed that this litigation was a search for the ‘full truth, wherever it leads.’ Facing major obstacles to proving their few remaining claims, the plaintiffs in their motion now ask the court to grant them victory on a technicality, to avoid any further revelations of the actual facts and merits of the claims, and to simply award money damages.
Plaintiffs’ motion reveals that they are looking for any way to exit a case they cannot win on the merits and that their case is now solely about money they hope to receive from the NCAA. The NCAA’s answer complies with Pennsylvania rules and the Association vigorously denies the allegations in the complaint.”
Over the past two weeks the NCAA has said it intends to subpoena two of Joe Paterno’s children. In a filing on June 3 the NCAA said it wants to ask Mary Kay Paterno-Hort for “all communications regarding the value of Coach Paterno’s assests, financial net worth, or the financial net worth of Coach Paterno’s estate.”
On May 27 the NCAA revealed its plan to subpoena Scott Paterno, seeking a long list of detailed information.
The NCAA wants to see everything Scott Paterno has concerning the Freeh report, which the NCAA used as the basis for its sanctions against Penn State. The NCAA also wants to see all documents related to the Paterno family’s own investigation and report, including communications with former U.S. attorney general Dick Thornburgh, former FBI investigator Jim Clemente and psychiatrist Fred Berlin.
The NCAA also wants communications between Paterno and many of the key players in the Sandusky scandal, including former Penn State President Graham Spanier, former university administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, former assistant football coach Mike McQueary, and Sandusky himself.
It’s unclear when the court will rule on the Paterno estate’s motion for a judgment.
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