Former Tide football coach loses appeal to high court over pay
5/27/2005, 4:44 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former Alabama defensive coordinator Ellis
Johnson, who claims he has not been paid money the university owed him
when he was fired in December 2000, lost his appeal Friday to the state
Supreme Court.
Johnson, now the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State, still had a
year and a a half remaining on his contract when he was dismissed along
with head coach Mike DuBose and the rest of the staff at the end of the
2000 season.
But the court ruled that university officials did not commit fraud by
not telling Johnson that the university would be immune from lawsuit if
they failed to pay him. An attorney for Johnson said the ruling means
any contract with any state institution in Alabama is unenforceable.
Johnson sued the university, along with then-President Andrew Sorensen
and then-Athletic Director Bob Bockrath, accusing them of failing to
abide by the contract.
The contract said Johnson would continue to get his paycheck until he
found "comparable employment." Johnson stopped receiving checks from the
university later in December 2000, when he accepted the head coaching
job at his alma mater, The Citadel, a Division I-AA school. Johnson
argued in his lawsuit that The Citadel is not comparable employment to
Alabama, one of the most recognized names in college football.
Johnson's salary at Alabama was reportedly about $122,000 a year in 2000.
A Tuscaloosa judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the University of
Alabama was immune from liability and that the athletic director and
president could also not be found liable because they were acting as
agents of the university. Johnson appealed the lower court rulings
concerning Sorensen and Bockrath, claiming that they committed fraud by
leading him to believe he could go to court if the university failed to
honor the contract.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled Friday that Sorensen and Bockrath were
not legal scholars and would have had no way of knowing what they told
Johnson was false.
One of Johnson's attorneys, Thomas Powell of Birmingham, said the
university's immunity means that employment contracts with Alabama are
unenforceable.
"It's important to know that any contract with any state institution is
unenforceable. You need to get your money up front. That applies to
every football coach, every professor," Powell said.
Powell said Johnson still has a claim against the university pending
before the state Board of Adjustment.
Johnson did not return a phone message left at his office at Mississippi
State. An attorney for Bockrath and Sorensen, George Gordon, also did
not return a message left at his office.
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