Stray Shots: Is Finau on the hook?
PGA Tour star's gadfly lawsuit has legs; new Augusta members; will election grease deal?
By Peter Kaufman
Tony Finau will have to face court date over “unjust enrichment” (Charles Laberge/ANGC)
1. Tony Finau. One of the most likeable and talented players on the PGA Tour, Finau finds himself in a less-than-optimal position — being sued (along with certain family members and his agent, among others) for millions by his original backer on tour. The plaintiff, Molokai Hola, claims he had an agreement with Finau to invest $600,000 to fuel Finau’s then-nascent career, in return for a big chunk of Finau’s go-forward career earnings. Hola is handicapped by the fact that there is apparently no written evidence for the alleged arrangement.
Yes Virginia, an oral agreement can be a legally binding contract. But when, as here, there does not seem to be much in terms of corroboration, lack of a writing contract can become a very significant factor in judicial determination. However the court here did not have to determine whether a contract legally existed, because it determined that the Statute of Limitations had run out, thereby cutting off plaintiff’s breach of contract claim. There would also have been Statute of Frauds implications in such an effort to prove up an oral contract.
However: based on what seems to be the facts here, the court is permitting to proceed a claim for unjust enrichment.
Unjust enrichment refers to a situation where one person has received a benefit or advantage at the expense of another without any legal justification or agreement to compensate the other person. It can occur in various circumstances, such as when someone keeps mistakenly paid money, uses another person’s property without permission, or benefits from another’s efforts without compensation.
Unjust enrichment is an equitable remedy created by courts to help imply a contract even if one wasn’t expressly present. Source: JimersonBirr
The plaintiff here is going to get a judicial tee time after all, seeking to do an end-run around not being able to prove up an enforceable oral contract.
From SI/Morning Read in 2020: “Hola alleges that he paid for the Finau family’s mortgage payments, medical insurance, a new car and golf-related travel expenses for Tony and (brother) Gipper, including living expenses for the Finau family to reside in Florida for approximately a year while they received lessons from instructor David Leadbetter. Later, Hola helped form Finau Corp. to help promote the young golfers and was designated as the corporation’s registered agent.”
If Hola can prove payment of all that, Finau faces a rather long putt. Will he argue Hola gifted an alleged total of $600,000 for those expenses, expecting nothing in return? That’s an argument, but Stray Shots is not sanguine it’s necessarily a credible one.
That this mess is scheduled to proceed to a trial in 2525 is sad, because no matter who is correct or what happens, it’s not a good look for the popular Finau. It would be nice to see a quiet settlement and bring the now almost five-year litigation to a close.
2. Augusta membership. Credible reports (Augusta National, of course, does not issue press releases about this sort of thing) say there are four new members: