Tiger Woods: Attorneys in two separate complaints involving golf star ask court to compel ex-girlfriend to enter arbitration
By Jean Casarez and Rob Frehse, CNN
Attorneys in two separate complaints involving Tiger Woods are asking a court to compel his ex-girlfriend, Erica Herman, to resolve her complaints through arbitration.
The first suit, filed in October 2022 by Herman, alleges a trust owned and created by the golf star violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act by breaking her oral tenancy agreement to continue living in Woods’ home.
The filing states the actual damages to Herman “are likely to be measured in excess of $30,000,000.” Woods is not named as a defendant in the October lawsuit.
In a motion filed by the trustee of Woods’ trust, Christopher Hubman is asking the court to order Herman to arbitrate her claims against the trust pursuant to an arbitration provision in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed by her in 2017.
In an earlier briefing, Herman cited a statute that says plaintiffs in sexual harassment or assault disputes cannot be compelled to arbitrate those claims.
Hubman is also asking the court to find that Herman’s claims are not subject to that statute.
“Herman does nothing more than cite 9 U.S.C. §§ 401-402 and its salacious title … She has never asserted any claims for sexual assault or sexual harassment, does not do so in this land-lord tenant action and if truthful, can never do so,” attorneys for Hubman argued.
A more recent complaint aimed at nullifying the NDA was served on Woods last week.
In this case, attorneys for Woods are also asking a court to compel arbitration of all claims in his ex-girlfriend’s complaint.
Herman, who filed suit last week, said the NDA is unenforceable in part because of the new federal law invalidating arbitration clauses in sexual assault or sexual harassment cases.
“Nothing about Ms. Herman’s claims relate in any way to a sexual assault dispute or a sexual-harassment dispute, nor could they,” Woods’ attorney wrote in the motion.
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