Lilly v. Univ. of California-San Diego

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BRIAN LILLY, Sr., and BRENDA LILLY, individually, and on behalf of the Estate of Brian Lilly, Jr., Plaintiffs, v. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO, BOARD OF REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, GEOFF BOND, KATIE MCGANN, and EARL W. EDWARDS, Defendants.

No. 21-CV-1703 TWR (MSB)

United States District Court, S.D. California

August 23, 2023

ORDER (1) DENYING DEFENDANT BOND'S REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE, (2) GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS TO DISMISS, AND (3) DENYING DEFENDANTS MCGANN AND EDWARDS' MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFFS' REQUEST FOR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (ECF NOS. 46 47)

Honorable Todd W. Robinson, United States District Judge

Presently before the Court are Defendant Geoff Bond's (1) Motion to Dismiss Second Amended Complaint (ECF No. 46, “Bond Mot.”) and (2) Request for Judicial Notice (ECF No 46-2, “RJN”) as well as the (1) Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint and (2) Motion to Dismiss/Strike Request for Punitive Damages (ECF No. 47 “REM Mot.”) filed by Defendants The Regents of the University of California (“The Regents”), Earl W. Edwards, and Katie McGann. Also before the Court are Plaintiffs Brian Lilly, Sr., and Brenda Lilly's Oppositions to (ECF No. 49, “Opp'n Bond”; ECF No. 50, “Opp'n REM”) and Defendants' Replies in support of (ECF No. 53, “Bond Reply”; ECF No. 54, “REM Reply”) the respective Motions. The Court held a hearing on June 22, 2023. (ECF No. 58.) Having carefully considered the Second Amended Complaint (ECF No. 41, “SAC”), the Parties' arguments, and the relevant law, the Court DENIES Defendant Bond's Request for Judicial Notice; GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART Bond's Motion; and GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART The Regents, McGann, and Edwards' Motion, as follows.

BACKGROUND

I. Factual Background^[1]

A. Bond's Coaching at the University of Pennsylvania

Before coaching at the University of California San Diego (“UCSD”), Bond was a rowing coach at the University of Pennsylvania (“UPenn”). (SAC ¶¶ 29, 38.) During his time at UPenn in June 2016, senior rowers communicated to UPenn's athletic department that Bond “exhibited a disregard for responsible oversight of the mental health of the rowers” and “created an abusive environment by the repeated use of belittling nicknames and hostile language threatening rowers[, including the following statements:] ‘If you talk to me again, I swear I will fucking cap you,' ‘I will fucking kill you,' and ‘I will break through you.'” (Id. ¶ 31.) The seniors referred to Bond as “unstable and abusive” and “mentioned student suicide as a potential cost of keeping Bond on as coach.” (Id. ¶ 32 (emphasis omitted).) In fact, “during Bond's UPenn tenure, a student athlete who was on the men's rowing team struggled with addiction and tragically died from an overdose.” (Id. ¶ 34.) Further, while at UPenn, Bond would “publicly humiliate[] rowers who sought mental health counseling,” play “mind games with his rowers, like confusing them intentionally so he could chastise them when they erred[,] and target[] rowers he viewed as ‘weak.'” (Id. ¶¶ 32, 37.) In July 2016, UPenn's athletic director raised these concerns with Bond. (Id. ¶ 33.)

Then in June 2019, Bond was “ousted from UPenn after . . . approximately 25 rowers from the Men's Heavyweight Crew team threatened to quit unless Bond was removed.” (Id. ¶¶ 29-30.) This protest stemmed from Bond's “mentally abusive coaching methods, unfair selection process, politically incorrect insults, old and ineffective training methods,” and acting as a “barrier” between student athletes and their trainers and other members of the coaching staff. (Id. ¶ 30.) After this June 2019 “mutiny,” an assistant coach at UPenn “suggested Bond take a different, less drastic approach with his rowers to avoid another UPenn-like-catastrophe.” (Id. ¶ 36.) Bond responded, “‘If you can't take the heat ....'” (Id.)

B. Bond's Coaching at the University of California San Diego

After Bond left UPenn, and with associate athletic director Katie McGann in charge of his hiring, UCSD hired Bond as the men's rowing team head coach on October 1, 2019. (Id. ¶¶ 39, 44.) McGann, and athletic director Earl W. Edwards, allegedly rushed the process, “did little to no independent research into Bond's background, prior positions[,] or the reasons he left [a number of] seemingly prestigious positions,” and “failed to uncover the aforementioned reasons Bond was forced out of UPenn.” (Id. ¶¶ 16, 41-42.) Indeed, Bond had a history of “abuse and erratic, anti-social behavior,” which was a “poorly kept secret in the tight-knit, national rowing community, but McGann and Edwards did not care to ask [about it].” (Id. ¶ 25.)

As a result, while coaching at UCSD, “Bond exhibited a general disregard for his student-athletes' health and well-being.” (Id. ¶ 101.) He “chastised rowers who sought independent medical treatment, taught them outdated rowing techniques, and mocked the rowers who reverted to the modern, effective techniques they learned previously.” (Id.) He would mock the rowers “for their insufficient testosterone, ‘flaccid' manhood, small ‘testicles' and/or lack of ‘manliness,' in general.” (Id. ¶ 102.) He also labelled the rowers as “pussies” during their workouts. (Id. ¶103.) Further, Bond “would intentionally target a single rower . . . to publicly humiliate the student in front of teammates.” (Id. ¶ 105.) On one occasion, Bond “repeatedly screamed at a freshman rower, ridiculing him that he was ‘flaccid'” and stating, “Your word of the day is flaccid!” (Id. ¶ 106.) On another occasion, a rower made a mistake setting the timer at practice and Bond shouted, “Maybe if you weren't finger fucking your phone that wouldn't have happened!” (Id.) He “frequently mocked the weight of certain rowers,” stating that “they needed to stop eating because they were too fat, lazy, and unwilling to meet his extreme demands.” (Id. ¶ 107.) “Bond first glorified rowers who worked out ‘so hard they puked,' then, after successfully inducing vomit, Bond would laugh and dismiss them as ‘pussies' for vomiting.” (Id. ¶ 111.) Plaintiffs contend that “Bond's conduct in engaging in constant bullying, abuse, and harassment was severe, pervasive, and objectively unreasonable.” (Id. ¶ 104.) But Bond allegedly “covered himself, and his abusive harassment, after-the-fact by feigning compassion or concern for his athletes through electronic communications.” (Id. ¶ 117.)

Initially, Bond's treatment of the student-athletes appeared to be “the run-of-the-mill tough variety, including challenges to the teenagers' toughness and sophomoric, sexually inappropriate insults to challenge their manliness.” (Id. ¶ 88 (internal quotation marks omitted).) But Bond's “challenges” and “insults” quickly became “more personal and biting.” (Id. ¶ 89.) Plaintiffs allege Bond's “tactics mirrored those employed at UPenn, including confusing rowers so he could yell at them when they did not follow his convoluted directions, humiliating rowers by challenging their manhood or displaying aggravation at [rowers] seeking treatment from the trainers.” (Id. ¶ 90.) For example, Bond once mocked a freshman rower as he walked away from the training room, accusing that rower of faking an injury. (Id. ¶ 200.) Plaintiffs state that some rowers quit because of Bond's behavior. (Id. ¶ 90.) Plaintiffs further assert that the culture Bond created “contravened the express claims of UCSD, which trumpeted to its prospective students its inclusive, safe campuses as being nurturing environments, free from toxicity.” (Id. ¶ 91.)

Between February 20 and 22, 2020, McGann was present at a rowing team practice, “observing the varsity boats practice while standing on the launch.” (Id. ¶ 160.) While McGann was observing, “Bond was particularly enraged and hostile towards the second varsity boat and launched into a tirade screaming at the second boat's rowers,” singling out specific rowers, and berating “them individually with profanity-laced insults.” (Id.)

C. Bond's Coaching of Brian Lilly, Jr.

Decedent Brian Lilly, Jr., “enrolled at UCSD in the Fall 2019 semester to pursue an undergraduate degree in real estate and development and to continue his passionate pursuit of rowing, as a scholar-athlete of the class of 2023 men's rowing team.” (Id. ¶ 73.) Decedent was “widely regarded as the consummate teammate, always present with words of encouragement and positive reinforcement.” (Id. ¶ 75.) He also “drew a tremendous amount of his self-worth and confidence from his on-field accomplishments.” (Id.)

Decedent was also “susceptible to body shaming throughout his life” after a diagnosis of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, which caused him to gain thirty pounds in middle school. (Id. ¶ 76.) He shared the “pain[] and shame[] he felt from his childhood obesity with his coaches and friends on the rowing team throughout his freshman year.” (Id. ¶ 76 n.2.) He lost weight with the help of his support system including his family and friends in New York but remained sensitive to his “former unhealthy stature.” (Id. ¶¶ 76 n.2, 77.) Despite his health struggles, Decedent completed a marathon in 2018 and an Ironman in 2019. (Id. ¶ 78.) “Decedent had no mental health issues prior to his enrollment at UCSD.” (Id. ¶ 82.)

In his first semester at UCSD, “Decedent distinguished himself quickly as a freshman leader on the rowing team” and he made friends quickly. (Id. ¶ 84.) Bond initially “appeared to recognize Decedent's value to the rowing team.” (Id. ¶ 93.) Decedent “did more erg machine work outs, with erg scores that were faster than the bulk of his teammates and nearly all his fellow freshmen.”^[2] (Id. ¶ 94.) His “hard work and competitive spirit impressed teammates and coaches alike at UCSD who wanted him...