On the surface of this it "appears" to be an attempted cash grab. But, I don't know that and maybe promises were made either by Tony's family or himself. Either way it is interesting.
Tony Finau being sued for $16 Mil!!
Gross. If accurate, seems like he is due about $2MM, not 16.
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Where do you get the $2M figure?
Article said Tony has made $20MM. Minus taxes and expenses is probably about $10MM. Article said this guy and Tony agreed to 20% of earnings.
I tried to find a copy of the actual Complaint filed in lawsuit, but did not succeed. If anyone has it, I would love to see it because these types of lawsuits are very hard to win because unless the terms of this type of agreement are clearly expressed in writing, they are barred by the statue of frauds. My guess is that this goes down in flames for a multitude of legal reasons.
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He may be going after endorsements as well. I dunno. I am not sure what merit there is. No contract, just his word. Bad look for Tony for sure. Worse if it is true. Tony has always appeared to be a wonderful human being. Sad for this news. I bet if anything it was arranged with his parents and he didn't have anything to do with it.
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Even with a paper trail? Court assumes these are gifts?
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Or a "please be quite" payment is made. Sort of like Kevin Na. Did nothing wrong but paid out a ton of money to make it just go away.
2mil plus the $500,000 living expenses he paid for
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I hear ya. The math definitely didn't make sense in the article.
Hola sounds like a huge scumbag.
I was just thinking this guy put out over $500K without a contract? Not very bright.
I'm guessing it is 20% of the gross. Like a caddie gets 10% of the winnings-pre-tax.
My same thought. Not sure what attorney would file that pleading based on a oral promise of 20% of the winnings. Same goes for the $600k in actual expenses, is there a writing for that?
The $600k in actual expenses, assuming the plaintiff can prove and document them, can probably be recovered. Who knows, Tony may have already repaid some or all of that. But you're not going to be awarded millions of dollars based on a handshake/oral agreement.
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Interesting...people are always looking for ways to find easy money at the expense of others.
Seems to be the way anymore unfortunately.
it depends on the paper trail, so be honest. It's not that they are assumed to be gifts, but that as a matter of law, courts are reluctant to enforce oral agreements in certain specified circumstances because it is difficult or impossible to prove a "meeting of the minds" to form a contract. For example, real estate transactions, to be enforceable, must be evidenced in a writing. doesn't have to be a contract, or even that details, but just something to show that its not being made up as a fraud. It is a way to deter opportunistic litigation when the facts are scant. that said, I also have some real questions about timing and whether the agreement could even be with Tony himself depending on age. the way the articles make it sound, the agreement was with his family as well, if at all. That could create a privity of contract issue. Point is, having litigated some of these on both sides, it can get real dicey real fast, especially if there is sloppy pleadings. That is why i was hoping to see the actual complaint.
It will almost always be less expensive to settle these than litigate, but more and more people are going to court and avoiding the shake down for a nuisance value. I have definitely seen a trend in eliminating confidential requirements of settlement terms. I have certainly moved to do that in certain areas of my practice.
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I agree, I tell myself that out of principle I would rather go to court than settle just because it eliminates questions. Even if it is the economically smart thing to do. People will always squint a little at you from then on... But then again, sometimes it is just always not worth the prolonged stress of it all and the potential lost revenue because of time in court etc. When you could be placing 2nd at the masters.
Sadly, that’s something I’ve never loved about my profession. At my old firm, I had a lot of “winning cases” but it still often made more sense for the client to settle for less than the “cost of defense.” And that doesn’t even consider the opportunity costs, as you mentioned.
Hard to know at the pleading stage much about the merits of the case too. Such a low standard for pleading. Case could be extremely thin on admissible evidence or even face legal issues like BigDill raised. I’m definitely interested to see how this plays out though.
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I am curious. Since you are a lawyer. How would you argue both sides to try and win (assuming it goes to court)? It seems Tony's argument would be simply. "at the time, I was a minor, you can't hold me accountable".
The plaintiff's argument should there for be. The deal was with the parents in good faith. Right?
Galen Marek
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Maybe I’m being naive but would a lawyer even take this case if there wasn’t some type of written agreement to back it up?
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If the lawyer is unskilled and doesn’t know contract law, if the lawyer thinks he can shake down Finau for money, if there is some form of written contract, if there is performance by Finau or his brother consistent with the alleged terms of the agreement (ie, imagine - hypothetically - he paid 20% of earnings up to 500k then stopped), etc. So sure.
I do agree with BigDill about wanting to see the pleading and about enforceability against a minor. But I suspect there may be some fire here, not just smoke. The expenses listed are pretty specific. The plaintiff is unlikely to allege those details without proof of having paid them for the Finau’s. And if plaintiff can prove the expenses it’s not out of the realm of possibility that some form of agreement exists, etc.
On the surface of this it "appears" to be an attempted cash grab. But, I don't know that and maybe promises were made either by Tony's family or himself. Either way it is interesting.
Promise of 20% of future earnings ... Tony has made $20m and this guy sues for $16m ... something is happenin' here, what it is ain't exactly clear.