MSU Settles With Victims for 500 Million

Submitted by HelloHeisman91 on
1.3 Million Per Victim The settlement will cost the school at least $500 million. Attorney Jamie White, who represented dozens of women who sued the university, confirmed the settlement. He said $425 million is to be paid now and $75 million will be held in reserve. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/05/16/michigan-sta… settlement will cost the school at least $500 million.

Mike Damone

May 16th, 2018 at 11:49 AM ^

Compare that with the $109 million that Penn State had to pay to settle with Sandusky's victims.  That is a lot of "cheddar"!

Looks like Sparty's football team will have Spam and Kraft Mac n Cheese on the training table this fall...

The Donger

May 16th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^

time for hoops yet - but Izzo can now focus his time on the rationalizations for the Travis Walton escapade.

"I have no recollection of Travis Walton beating the hell out of a girl while he was an employee of MSU and living in my house.  Actually, do not remember Travis Walton living in my house or being an employee of MSU.  In fact - who the hell is this Travis Walton guy you press keep talking about???"

Blue Know It

May 16th, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^

So is this something the taxpayers of the state of Michigan will have to pay? I sure hope not.

cheesheadwolverine

May 16th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^

Unless it's covered by insurance, its gotta come from somewhere.  I would guess it will be tuition payers not taxpayers.  I'm sure they'll say they aren't taking it out of tuition, but money is fungible and if you blow a $500 million dollar hole in the budged, you need more to cover everything else.

Mr Grainger

May 16th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

The story says MSU wants to take it from tuition and state aid, but lawmakers (rightfully so, I believe) say no state aid money should be used.

That is a huge chunk of change from tuition and may explain why the university just took its largest freshman class ever.

Also, they can only raise tuition so much because the state puts a cap on it. Exceeding the cap can cost a university its state aid money.

DairyQueen

May 16th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^

So the taxpayers and future students will foot the bill?

What about the peoole (and there were lots) who covered this up in the first place?

The admin (who by the way are sapping money from EVERY university, and discouraging professors from teaching), the atheletic department, the trainers, coaches, whoever, etc.?

Will anyone go to jail who was part of keeping this under wraps?

Just like wall street, no one goes to jail. You only go to jail if you steal from the rich, liek Bernie Madoff did.

Rugged, pull-yourself-up-from-your-bootstraps, capitalism for the poor, and socialism for the rich.

(interesting enough the origin of the "bootstraps" phrase literally was mocking, something that was impossible to do, and somehow it got turned into the exact opposite)

Man loves his myths.

darkstar

May 16th, 2018 at 1:31 PM ^

for my 2017 income taxes by April 17.  So wanted to write "Contribution to the Larry Nassar Victim Compensation Fund" in the memo but thought better of it.

They have my mailing address so I guess I'll just wait for the bill to get mailed to my house for my share.

mGrowOld

May 16th, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^

And what pray tell will trigger this escrow payment?  Hitting their earn out projections in years 2 & 3 after the buy out?

Cant wait to read the fine print on that one.  Hell that's over 15% of the total settlement.

ST3

May 16th, 2018 at 5:32 PM ^

I heard on the radio last week that my neighboring school district settled a lawsuit with 25 victims of a high school wrestling coach for $31M. That's $1.24M per person. I don't know how much the lawyers take off the top.

There are cases of people getting $5M in settlements, but there's also a story about 35 people splitting $5M.

Engler is no fucking hero. I don't mean to imply you stated that. Only that spartan slappies who think he saved the university 100's of millions of dollars are wrong.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-torrance-unified-settlement…

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2009/01/14/montreal_school_to_pay_5…

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2017/02/02/440651.htm

 

jbrandimore

May 16th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^

The democrat/republican partisan politics of this, do you think it's going to be a campaign issue in the governor's races?

Meaning - do you think it's going to matter whether the candidates are adament about taxpayers not footing this bill, no matter which party they are from?

I think it's going to be huge, and this timing might in fact be bad for MSU as I can't see any candidate doing well that doesn't promise to make MSU pay this whole thing from their own funds.

 

 

The Donger

May 16th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^

if this is full settlement and all victims have agreed to it - or in other words, what does the phrase "at least" mean.

Assuming this news is accurate - what other parties/items need to be settled from a material $ standpoint?  Assuming fines from NCAA and other regulatory agencies are still pending...

Blue_In_Texas

May 16th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^

If MSU settled for 500 mil, that means their lawyers told their clients (and the clients agreed) that their liability at trial is likely over a billion. That is absolutely wild! Contrast that with the statements made by that dickhead Engler. What a institutional dumpster fire. Half a billion dollars!

1408

May 16th, 2018 at 7:38 PM ^

This is an astronomical blow to MSU.  They will be paying more in debt service, they will have to delay infrastructure maintenance, and the reputational damage will be substantial.  I almost wonder how it would have looked at trial - every now and then you get a jury not willing to stick taxpayers with that type of insane number.  

Lawyers likely received $15-20m if not more, for what its worth.  Probably a lot more.