OF COURSE A SIGNING BONUS CLAWBACK IS LEGAL.
The Seattle Seahawks sued former defensive linemen Malik McDowell, alleging that their former draft pick failed to pay back nearly $800,000 of a signing bonus.
According to the Detroit News, the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan on Wednesday.
The Seahawks drafted McDowell in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft, but the former Michigan State product never played for the team.
McDowell was injured in an ATV accident in July 2017 and has yet to see action on the field after the Seahawks waived him with a non-football injury designation.
An arbitrator ruled in February 2019 that McDowell breached his contract after being injured away from the football and that he had to forfeit his signing bonus of nearly $1.6 million.
The Seahawks withheld payment of $800,000 for the 2018 season,
Dick’s Sues Former CTO Over Signing Bonus
Posted by SGB Media | Oct 24, 2019 | SGB Updates, Update
Dick’s Sporting Goods has filed a lawsuit against Paul Gaffney, its former chief technology officer who joined Kohl’s in September. The lawsuit charges Gaffney owes the company half of the $1.5 million sign-on bonus he received due to his resigning less than two years after being hired.
Gaffney was hired in November 2017. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Gaffney’s contract called for Gaffney to refund 100 percent of his $1.5 million sign-on bonus if he left Dick’s within a year after being hired and 50 percent of the bonus if he left within two years
The San Francisco 49ers have sued Aldon Smith in order to get back the more than $300,000 in forfeited signing bonuses that the team says is owed to them.
According to the complaint (via the Hollywood Reporter) filed Monday in a Northern California district court, Smith was required to pay $1,186,027 of his $8.961,092 signing bonus when the linebacker was suspended for nine games after violating the NFL substance abuse and personal conduct policy in 2014. The 49ers claim Smith, who is now with the Raiders, has only paid them $844,396.82. They are suing to get the outstanding $341,630.18 owed to them.
It’s an enforceable contract. If it’s a small amount, they may let it go, but anyone who believes the 13th amendment is a bar to a clawback agreement on a signing bonus is simply ignorant.