Blackhawks face (another) sexual assault lawsuit
- Thread starter LadyStanley
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CokenoPepsi
Registered User
- Oct 28, 2016
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A quick settlement coming? With Rocky now dead and even Kane and Toews no longer part of the franchise think they will be desperate to bury this as quick as possible
From what I've read, this incident is included in the report on the Beach situation. If so, I assume there would be no further punishment of the Hawks by the NHL unless truly new information is revealed.
That being said, the hawks should definitely pay up as regardsthe lawsuit.
mouser
Business of Hockey
Fish on The Sand
Untouchable
Agreed, NHL would really be stepping out of their lane here if no new information is uncovered.
Everybody affected though deserves justice, and if the only way to do that is to extract money via a lawsuit then so be it. Blackhawks should pay every single one of Aldrich's victims a hefty amount during his time with the club.
Not only should they pay for that it happened, but they should pay a premium for the debacle and a half of inaction.
awfulwaffle
Registered User
Still think it's absurd that they hawks didn't lose any draft picks originally. They were gifted bedard, and rewarded for being a garbage organization.
Which kind of makes their punishment of $2 mill really a bad look. Kovy punishment for cap circumvention netted NJ a $3 mill fine in 2010. Time value of money plus the boom in NHL valuations, that $2 mill is a fraction of what NJ got hit with.
mouser
Business of Hockey
The NHL Constitution only gives the commissioner power to take draft picks away from teams for violations affecting "competitive aspects of the game". As reprehensible as Chicago's conduct was, it would be difficult to win a legal argument that Chicago's failure to timely notify HR of possible misconduct by a video coach impacted "competitive aspects of the game". If that were true then just about any team misconduct during the playing season could be viewed as affecting competitive aspects.
mouser
Business of Hockey
$2m may have been the maximum fine permitted. The NHL Constitution and By-Laws include limits on how much a team can be fined. Yes, NJ was fined more in 2010, however the NJ incident included competitive aspects, so it's possible that violation carried a higher fine limit.
Also, it's likely any fine assessed by the league would be based on the date of the misconduct, not the date of when the fine is issued. Chicago's violation happened in 2010.
MeHateHe
Registered User
- Dec 24, 2006
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Talking through my hat a bit here, but I wonder if the lack of real punishment by the league is to protect the club from getting hammered in civil suits. That is to say, if the league took real action against the club, would it be akin to an admission of guilt that a clever lawyer would use to extract a greater settlement against the Hawks.
Yukon Joe
Registered User
OK, so as a lawyer (full disclosure: not licensed to practice law in Illinois) - are limitation periods not a thing anymore?
Googling suggests a 2 year limitation period for personal injuries in Illinois.
There can be exceptions for minors or infirm people, but the plaintiff here was a grown NHLer.
There are also exceptions for when a claim was discovered, but the NHL report itself came out 2 and a half years ago.
That being said the Blackhawks actions were shameful and I have no problem with this player getting paid.
Googling suggests a 2 year limitation period for personal injuries in Illinois.
There can be exceptions for minors or infirm people, but the plaintiff here was a grown NHLer.
There are also exceptions for when a claim was discovered, but the NHL report itself came out 2 and a half years ago.
That being said the Blackhawks actions were shameful and I have no problem with this player getting paid.
mouser
Business of Hockey
Chicago raised that issue of the 2 year limitation in Kyle Beach’s lawsuit, Challenging Beach’s claim that ”repressed memories” allowed the suit to avoid the 2 year limitation. Media coverage at the time imply even though Chicago had a strong legal basis to prevail in the Beach suit it was better PR-wise for Chicago to settle with Beach.
I’d expect the same to happen with this new second player lawsuit. Chicago will work out a settlement.
Blackhawks challenge Beach's 'repressed memory' claim and file motion to dismiss - TSN.ca
The Chicago Blackhawks have filed a motion to dismiss Kyle Beach’s negligence lawsuit, arguing that the statute of limitations expired before the hockey player’s case was filed in court.
www.tsn.ca
It did impact competitive aspects of the game because if they handled this appropriately it would have caused a massive distraction for the team. They swept this under the rug and that allowed the team to avoid the distraction and focus on their cup run.
If the Hawks were adequately staffed to handle something like this, the team could have avoided the distraction while handling the matter appropriately.
It's still boggling that a billion dollar franchise/company doesn't have a dedicated hr department educated and trained to handle these types of things, and even more boggling is that posters think that barely high school educated athletes (Quenneville included) were somehow equipped with the knowledge to do the right thing, the right way.
Fish on The Sand
Untouchable
That's a huge stretch.
In fact, if they'd just fired Aldrich on the spot (like they should have) it wouldn't have even made a single media report.
That's actually one of the biggest criticisms of Q throughout all of this, was that this wasn't even somebody important to the organization, so his justification just made no sense. It was obvious he just didn't want to be bothered with it and ultimately that's why he's banned.
mouser
Business of Hockey
I disagree it would have caused a “massive distraction for the team”. If Chicago had handled it properly in 2010 with HR, all the players on the team would know at best is video coach Aldrich was on administrative leave from the team for unknown reasons.(While HR investigated)
HR is never going to tell everyone the allegations involved in the leave or eventual firing.
