L.A. Superior Court Judge Huey Cotton earlier this month threw out 12 of the 14 claims in a lawsuit the NBPA filed against former Exec Dir Billy Hunter. Hunter, who was fired by union player reps in February ’13, had sought to throw out all counts of the countersuit that was filed against him. Hunter is suing the NBPA to recover the $10M he claims the union owes him. Cotton ruled that NBPA’s countersuit could go forward on two claims of breach of fiduciary duty. He threw out a claim of unfair competition and ruled it could not be re-filed. On the other 11 claims, Cotton ruled in favor of Hunter to dismiss them but allowed the union to amend the lawsuit to overcome problems he cited with those claims. The union was given 30 days to amend those, which are two claims of fraudulent misrepresentation, two claims of constructive fraud, two claims of negligent misrepresentation, two claims of fraudulent concealment, one count of conversion, one count of unjust enrichment, one count of money had and received. Some of the claims were based on a report that law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison LLP had conducted into Hunter’s stewardship of the union, which found, that although he had not broken any laws, Hunter acted against the players’ interests. One of the things the NBPA is seeking is to recover $1.3M in unused vacation pay that it alleged was wrongfully received by Hunter that was detailed in the report.
STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS IN PLAY: Cotton noted that some of the NBPA’s claims against Hunter were based on the report about incidents that were alleged to have occurred years prior and there was a statute of limitations problem regarding some of these issues. “While the Union may argue that it was not aware of breaches of fiduciary duty until it received the (Paul Weiss) report, there is no allegation showing that the Union or its officers could not have made an earlier discovery despite due diligence,” Cotton wrote in his decision. “The Union does not explain why it was not aware of its own Constitution and By-Laws and contract ratification history. The Union does not explain that, when given the opportunity, it did not make an investigation into the vacation days payout.” The NBPA in a statement said, "We are pleased that the judge ruled that the NBPA's primary claims against Mr. Hunter for breach of fiduciary duty will go forward. Those claims encompass all of the misconduct for which the NBPA seeks to hold Mr. Hunter accountable. While no decision has been made to amend, we are optimistic that if we decide to do so, those claims will go forward as well." David Anderson, a partner at the Sidley Austin law firm, and one of Hunter’s attorneys, said: “The Court dismissed nearly all of the NBPA’s claims on statute of limitations grounds. Although the Court gave the NBPA another chance to show why it should be allowed to bring these claims, we believe the NBPA’s claims are both old and meritless.” Hunter first filed his lawsuit against the NBPA in May ’13, but there is no trial date set yet.
