Todd McNair’s lawsuit against NCAA on hold once again
Former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair’s long-running defamation lawsuit against the NCAA is on hold once again.
California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal paused the case Monday after McNair’s attorneys contested the removal of the Los Angeles Superior Court judge overseeing it.
The NCAA moved in May to disqualify Judge Frederick Shaller. In a court filing that included citations of message board postings, the NCAA said the “public perceives potential judicial bias” because Shaller graduated from USC.
The court granted the request for a different reason days later, saying the NCAA “had the right to challenge the continued participation of the trial judge … without showing any good cause” because the appellate court last year reversed a portion of a ruling by Shaller in the case.
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In a June filing with the appellate court, McNair’s attorneys argued that the NCAA wasn’t entitled to challenge Shaller’s continued participation in the case because it previously had Judge Rita Miller disqualified. Each side has one “peremptory challenge” to remove a judge, but can be granted a second challenge if a final judgment is reversed on appeal.
“Here, of course, there was no reversal of a ‘final judgment,’” McNair’s filing said.
The former assistant coach sued in 2011 after being sanctioned along with USC following the NCAA’s extra-benefits investigation that centered on Trojans running back Reggie Bush.
The case had appeared set to resume this summer after a three-year detour through the appellate court that started in 2012 when the NCAA appealed Shaller’s rejection of the organization’s motion to dismiss the case.
Shaller wrote in his ruling at the time that emails between members of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions “tend to show ill will or hatred” and described the conduct of people involved in the investigation as “malicious.”
A three-justice panel upheld the bulk of Shaller’s original ruling in December in strongly-worded opinion, but threw out McNair’s allegation that the NCAA sanctions caused USC not to renew his contract. The NCAA cited the reversal in the motion to remove Shaller.
An appellate court hearing is scheduled for October.
Twitter: @nathanfenno
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