The lawsuit itself is remarkable in its intent. Peeled away, Giuliani is a whiny non-scholarship golfer who claims that his tuition payments, coupled with various student handbooks, constituted a contract that Duke and its golf coach have now breached. That’s a stretch, legally, to be completely generous. Much more of a stretch are the alleged breaches.
The complaint weaves a tale of back-room dealing and imagined conspiracies all of which served to deny poor Giuliani his God-given right to play and practice for free at Duke’s golf facilities. And if it’s not too much trouble, he’d like his tuition reimbursed.
In young Andrew’s version of the events, he begrudgingly owns up to some juvenile conduct, with the emphasis on begrudgingly, but says it hardly justifies the draconian punishment of permanent banishment. Of course, as you read the 29-page complaint, a few additional layers of the onion get stripped away and make you say “hmmm, maybe there is another side to this.” For example, all the aforesaid conduct caused was an indefinite suspension, not banishment. Giuliani had various opportunities to gain reinstatement but chose instead to ignore these opportunities in favor of lawyering up.
Giuliani, for instance, was asked to sign an agreement setting forth the requirements for reinstatement. It was an agreement not in the legal sense but in the “take responsibility for your actions, you punk” sense. On the advice of his step-father, Ed Oster, also as the complaint notes, a “practicing attorney,” Giuliani twice refused to sign, essentially sealing his fate. Interestingly, the complaint contains no allegations of malpractice against Oster, though it probably could have since it seems more than likely had Giuliani just signed this very innocuous “agreement” he’d probably still be on the team. Perhaps the North Carolina bar also might wonder whether Oster was practicing in their state without a license, but that’s for another day.
The great thing about conspiracy lawsuits such as this one is that any bad fact for the plaintiff can be immediately turned on its ear. Giuliani references the fact that four of his teammates wrote him an email expressing their desire that his affiliation with the golf team be terminated. Of course, this email was supposedly masterminded by the coach. Strangely, this is just one spot that the complaint is short on specifics as to how that supposedly occurred.
Article comments
1 - Marny
Your ability to make me laugh will always be your saving grace.