Capitolwire:
By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
HARRISBURG (Aug. 7) – The NCAA, Penn State and state officials filed a joint motion Wednesday to postpone federal court proceedings in hopes the parties could “conduct settlement negotiations” in the NCAA’s federal lawsuit over a state law controlling $60 million in fines against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
The parties say a month will provide a “meaningful opportunity” to attempt to obtain an amicable resolution of the litigation.
Also notable this week, a Commonwealth Court judge approved a status conference to be held later this month in a related lawsuit.
Coincidence? That remains to be seen.
But while they were successful in beating back Gov. Tom Corbett’s federal antitrust challenge in 2013, the NCAA’s battle against state officials in Commonwealth Court hasn’t been going as swimmingly.
Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey in April dismissed the NCAA’s claims of unconstitutionality against the Endowment Act – Act 1 of 2013 – which would essentially direct the $60 million penalty levied against Penn State to in-state child welfare organization. The NCAA had intended to spread the monetary penalty to organizations across the country, keeping some of it in Pennsylvania.
The joint motion filed Wednesday is related to the NCAA’s lawsuit filed last year in federal court saying the state law violated the U.S. Constitution. The state case stems from a lawsuit brought by Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, and State Treasurer Rob McCord.
Covey’s ruling also questioned the validity of the consent decree while giving lawyers for Corman and McCord the ability to probe the NCAA and Penn State during the lawsuit’s discovery phase to find out how the organizations reached the terms of the punishing sanctions outlined in the consent decree.
That means potentially having lawyers tearing through internal documents, interviewing NCAA and Penn State officials under oath, and conducting other inspections to which the two powerful, yet closed-off, institutions aren’t accustomed – and then having that information laid out in what would be a highly publicized court proceeding.
On Tuesday, Covey approved a joint motion to hold a telephone status conference with the parties involved in the state court proceedings, which have been set in motion since June when she ordered the start of discovery and set a trial date for early January. Status conferences are commonly used to set court schedules among parties, discuss stipulations or negotiate settlements.
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EDITOR: “Discovery”, the right to inspect records, is NCAA’s worst nightmare.
Former county commissioner Molly Henderson sued the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. on the claim of libel. Discovery would have given her access to the newspapers internal communications, especially with Dale High and his organizations. Unfortunately, the case was dismissed . She and we will never know.
