FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tiger Woods‘ ex-girlfriend has dropped her lawsuits in opposition to the golf famous person and the belief that owns his Florida mansion, saying she by no means accused him of sexual harassment regardless that her legal professional has made that declare.
The legal professional for Erica Herman filed a one-paragraph discover in state court docket final week saying she was voluntarily dismissing her $30 million lawsuit in opposition to the belief “with prejudice,” that means the declare can’t be reasserted later. She had claimed that Woods promised she may stay on the 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square meter) beachfront mansion till 2026 however kicked her out unexpectedly final 12 months.
“In dismissing this motion, Erica Herman states that she was by no means a sufferer of sexual harassment or sexual abuse by the hands of Tiger Woods or any of his brokers and it’s her place that she has by no means asserted such a declare,” wrote legal professional Benjamin Hodas, who claimed on a number of events that Woods had sexually harassed his shopper.
A separate lawsuit in opposition to Woods was rejected by a decide in Could, and court docket data present an attraction of that call was dropped this week. Nothing in court docket paperwork signifies a settlement was reached on both lawsuit, although that would have been finished privately.
Hodas didn’t return a name and e-mail in search of remark Thursday. Woods’ legal professional, J.B. Murray, declined to remark.
Herman was Woods’ girlfriend from 2015 till October 2022, shifting into his $54 million mansion north of Palm Seashore in 2016. She managed his Palm Seashore County restaurant earlier than and throughout the first years of their romantic relationship, and she or he signed a nondisclosure settlement in 2017 that barred her from discussing their relationship publicly. It additionally required her to take any authorized disagreements with Woods to personal arbitration and never court docket.
Hodas claimed in a Could court docket listening to that Herman did not bear in mind signing the doc however that if she did it was beneath duress, having been advised she could be fired from the restaurant if she did not.
Hodas argued the nondisclosure settlement was unenforceable beneath a brand new federal legislation that claims such contracts will be voided when sexual abuse or sexual harassment occurred. He contended that Woods’ alleged menace to fireside her was harassment.
“A boss imposing totally different work situations on his worker due to their sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Hodas wrote in a Could submitting.
Circuit Decide Elizabeth Metzger rejected Herman’s try to quash the nondisclosure settlement later in Could, calling her allegations “obscure and threadbare.”
“Herman has had the chance [to] present factual specificity for any declare referring to sexual assault or sexual harassment, nonetheless, she has not finished so,” Metzger wrote.
Forbes Journal estimates Woods’ internet value at $1.1 billion. In 2017, Woods had put the mansion into the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Belief, an entity he created that has solely himself and his two youngsters as beneficiaries.
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