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Chavis' attorney Bill Youngkin sounds off on lawsuit

March 2, 2015
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Key Quotes from Hunter Shurtleff

“I had the opportunity to review the petition that was filed by John Chavis’ attorney, which is kind of how we glean most of our information that we know so far. To set this up, John Chavis signed an extension of his agreement with LSU that extended his employment through December 31, 2014, then he agreed to a one year extension after that that would have run it through December 31, 2015. Under that agreement Chavis has the opportunity to terminate his employment without cause, for no reason at all, with penalty or without penalty. So if he does it within 0-11 months left on his agreement then there is no penalty. If it was more than 11 months, then it was a $400,000 liquidated damages amount.

"We know what happens here, Chavis gets hired, A&M selects him, he hits the ground January 1st, then he gets a notice letter from his athletic director Joe Alleva on the next day. I’m assuming that some of that is hard feelings and they’re angry, they reached out on whatever contract language they had and said, ‘you owe us $400,000’. John Chavis in his petition says his termination date is based on when I give my notice so it is effective 30 days after I get my notice is the, that is the day of my employment termination, that’s a February 4th termination date. Now, we’re inside the 11 months and he’s saying I don’t owe anything. What he filed is called a declaritory judgment and that’s when you have an actual or real dispute with somebody over an issue, in this case a contract and you’re asking the judge, ‘Judge, they think it’s this way, we think it’s that way, so we’re asking the court to decide what the contract says.'

"We also know Chavis added Texas A&M as a indispensable party. It’s implied in the petition, if there is liquidated damages owed that Texas A&M has to step up and pay those. What we don’t know, and we're a little bit handcuffed reviewing it because we haven’t seen the Chavis-LSU contract, we haven’t seen the Chavis-A&M contract, and we certainly haven’t seen these letters that went back and forth between LSU and Chavis. The petition is certainly informative, you can gather a lot from that. Just looking at the petition, from what we know now, he’s got a pretty good case.”

“But what about the pictures of Chavis in January in A&M gear out recruiting? That's what everybody is going to be asking and until we see that contract, it’s going to give us a little more insight but, if I’m LSU I’m going to say that’s constructive termination. He was already out there working on January 2nd for Texas A&M, but all we know is this paragraph 12c of his contract right now which is if he, John Chavis, decides to terminate his own employment without cause, it was effective 30 days after his notice. Certainly, that’s one area I’m attacking if I'm LSU.

"The second one is, if you and I were going to sit down and draw up a draft agreement here in Bryan, Texas, I would put in there that if there was a dispute between me and you, that you’re going to have to file a dispute in a Texas court, and the venue is going to be in Brazos county. I cannot imagine that the LSU-Chavis contract does not have some type of jurisdictional language and venue language that if there is a dispute between those parties that the dispute must be tried in Louisiana. When we see LSU answer in this lawsuit and start providing their story, that’s one of the first attacks they’re going to have to overcome, is the jurisdictional venue argument that the case should be in Louisiana.”

Key quotes from Bill Youngkin

“First of all, let me tell you that Hunter’s assessment of Coach Chavis and A&M and our involvement in this deal is right on, there are no issues between A&M and Chavis. This is strictly contractual and the reason the university is in there is because it’s going to be their money ultimately if it is determined to be that we did not avoid the $400,000 penalty. The second thing is that Coach Chavis is without doubt one of the best defensive coordinators in the country and it was LSU’s job to resign him and they failed in that regard, that has nothing to do with A&M. That was between LSU and coach Chavis. After they failed to do that, then they indicate to him they were going to sue him for the $400,000.

"Now we’re faced with the issue of defending Coach Chavis in a law suit that they’re going to file, or should we or could we ask for an interpretation of the term of the contract based on the facts that are out there, and let a judge determine the responsibilities we might or might not have under that agreement. The decision was made, they gave us until last Friday, before they filed suit. We filed suit before they did, three hours before. Now we have a jurisdictional issue. Now to answer the jurisdiction question, there was not a paragraph in their contract that said we had to sue in Louisiana or had to sue in East Baton Rouge parish, there we are.”

“A&M has a voice, and so they had to be added in the suit, that was something that was discussed before hand. I will tell you as far as if you read the article in the Houston Chronicle by Brent Zwerneman, it is as you guys have laid out and how I have laid out. The headlines though are usually on the control of an editor somewhere, and it’s to catch the attention of and to make people want to read the story, and I’m assuming that’s the case. I haven't talked to Brent about that, but I don't think Brent's story and the headline coincides."

“It won't play out through summer and into fall camp, and I will tell you that those are some of the discussions we’re going to have with LSU this morning. When we filed suit we gave them a heads up on the suit to the attorney that wrote the letter, they have done likewise with the suit they have filed there. So before we start lawyering, I think we’ll all want to sit down and hopefully say, 'where are we with this and what resolutions will be acceptable to folks.' I promise you we have reasonable people on our side, particularly on the university side, and we’re not out to do harm to anybody. We’re trying to keep harm from being done and want to see where we can get moving down the road quickly as possible.”

Discussion from...

Chavis' attorney Bill Youngkin sounds off on lawsuit

13,919 Views | 13 Replies | Last: 9 yr ago by Cancelled
Gabe Bock
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AG
Chavis' attorney Bill Youngkin sounds off on lawsuit
ValantiLogistics
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We should (as a university) bonus Chavis 50K for any pain and suffering this contract dispute may have caused. Show him some real love. It will also send a message to LSU. We love him. He had us at Hello!
aggiehawg
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AG
quote:
Now we have a jurisdictional issue. Now to answer the jurisdiction question, there was not a paragraph in their contract that said we had to sue in Louisiana or had to sue in East Baton Rouge parish, there we are."
That is simply amazing that such a boilerplate clause is omitted.
ZoneClubber
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AG
quote:
quote:
Now we have a jurisdictional issue. Now to answer the jurisdiction question, there was not a paragraph in their contract that said we had to sue in Louisiana or had to sue in East Baton Rouge parish, there we are."
That is simply amazing that such a boilerplate clause is omitted.
I agree. I'm a bit shocked. Thanks to Mr. Youngkin for sharing that nugget of info
brandontyler
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AG
Great insight Hunter!
CoachAg85
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Thanks for the info. Your editor needs to be crapped out. Incite is not insight.
aggiehawg
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AG
quote:
Thanks for the info. Your editor needs to be crapped out. Incite is not insight.
Have to laugh at that. Reminds me of the old days when I would dictate letters and briefs and my assistant would transcribe the dictation. Hence "declaratory" becomes "declaritory", "constructive" becomes "destructive", "insight" becomes "incite."

From my day legal terms such as "scintilla of evidence" was transcribed as "chinchilla of evidence", "res judicata" was transcribed as "race to Cadda", "rule of comity" was transcribed as "rule of comedy" and "stare decisis" was transcribed as "starry nights."

Was always an adventure in proof-reading.
The Collective
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AG
quote:
quote:
Now we have a jurisdictional issue. Now to answer the jurisdiction question, there was not a paragraph in their contract that said we had to sue in Louisiana or had to sue in East Baton Rouge parish, there we are."
That is simply amazing that such a boilerplate clause is omitted.


Pretty incredible.
SEC Champs
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AG
quote:
But what about the pictures of Chavis in January in A&M gear out recruiting?


I have no background in law, but am I the only one who thinks this will be the smoking gun?
Whiskey Before Breakfast
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Ardeth Bey
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AG
Seems to me like we will end up paying some lesser amount, since Coach was actively recruiting for us while still on the LSU payroll. But what he's going to do for our defense will make it worth it.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
And moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue."
Barry Goldwater
aggiehawg
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quote:
Seems to me like we will end up paying some lesser amount, since Coach was actively recruiting for us while still on the LSU payroll. But what he's going to do for our defense will make it worth it.
That's a big assumption.
3rdGenAg05
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AG
quote:
Thanks for the info. Your editor needs to be crapped out. Incite is not insight.

resign =\= re-sign
Cancelled
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Not a federal litigator, but seems to me like if LSU wanted, this ends up in fed ct due to diversity of the parties.
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