FORT LAUDERDALE – Tiger Woods‘ ex-girlfriend has dropped her lawsuits versus the golf superstar and the believe in that owns his Florida mansion, indicating she never accused him of sexual harassment even however her lawyer has designed that claim.
The legal professional for Erica Herman filed a a single-paragraph detect in state court docket last week indicating she was voluntarily dismissing her $30 million lawsuit versus the rely on “with prejudice,” that means the claim cannot be reasserted afterwards. She experienced claimed that Woods promised she could are living at the 30,000-sq.-foot (2,800-sq. meter) beachfront mansion right up until 2026 but kicked her out unexpectedly final yr.
“In dismissing this motion, Erica Herman states that she was never a target of sexual harassment or sexual abuse at the arms of Tiger Woods or any of his brokers and it is her placement that she has never ever asserted this kind of a claim,” wrote lawyer Benjamin Hodas, who claimed on multiple occasions that Woods had sexually harassed his client.
A individual lawsuit in opposition to Woods was rejected by a decide in Could, and court docket data show an enchantment of that conclusion was dropped this 7 days. Practically nothing in courtroom files implies a settlement was achieved on both lawsuit, even though that could have been accomplished privately.
Hodas did not return a simply call and electronic mail in search of comment Thursday. Woods’ legal professional, J.B. Murray, declined to remark.
Herman was Woods’ girlfriend from 2015 until October 2022, going into his $54 million mansion north of Palm Beach in 2016. She managed his Palm Seashore County cafe in advance of and all through the very first a long time of their passionate partnership, and she signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2017 that barred her from talking about their relationship publicly. It also required her to just take any authorized disagreements with Woods to private arbitration and not court.
Hodas claimed in a May possibly court hearing that Herman failed to recall signing the doc but that if she did it was underneath duress, possessing been explained to she would be fired from the cafe if she didn’t.
Hodas argued the nondisclosure arrangement was unenforceable underneath a new federal legislation that says this sort of contracts can be voided when sexual abuse or sexual harassment happened. He contended that Woods’ alleged menace to fire her was harassment.
“A manager imposing different function conditions on his employee mainly because of their sexual romantic relationship is sexual harassment,” Hodas wrote in a May filing.
Circuit Decide Elizabeth Metzger turned down Herman’s try to quash the nondisclosure arrangement afterwards in May perhaps, contacting her allegations “vague and threadbare.”
“Herman has had the option (to) give factual specificity for any declare relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment, however, she has not carried out so,” Metzger wrote.
Forbes Journal estimates Woods’ net truly worth at $1.1 billion. In 2017, Woods experienced put the mansion into the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Have confidence in, an entity he produced that has only himself and his two youngsters as beneficiaries.
