Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Judge: Hernandez's Child Can't Sue NFL Over Brain Disease
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
February 15, 2019

Share

PHILADELPHIA — The 6-year-old daughter of the late NFL player Aaron Hernandez missed a 2014 deadline to opt out of the league’s concussion settlement and can’t separately pursue a $20 million suit over his diagnosis of a degenerative brain disease, a judge ruled.
Yet Hernandez’s death in 2017 came too late for his family to seek up to $4 million in compensation for suicides related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy under the class action settlement.
Hernandez spent three years with the New England Patriots before his 2013 arrest on the first of three homicide charges. The Patriots terminated his $40 million contract, and he never returned to the NFL.
U.S. District Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia — where lawsuits were consolidated alleging the NFL hid what it knew about the risks of concussion injuries — ruled Thursday that he was effectively retired and therefore, along with his family, bound by the class action settlement for NFL retirees.
Under terms of the concussion settlement, the judge said, “The crux of the issue is whether Hernandez was ‘seeking active employment’ as an NFL football player as of July 7, 2014. He was not. On this date, Hernandez had been imprisoned — without bail — for nearly a year.”

Doctors Later Found Hernandez Had Advanced CTE

Family lawyer Brad Sohn argued that Hernandez had not retired but hoped to be exonerated and return to the league. His daughter, Sohn said, should therefore be able to pursue her “loss of consortium” lawsuit in her home state of Massachusetts.

“No matter what anybody wants to say about Aaron Hernandez . she will have to live with the fact that she doesn’t have a parent for the rest of her life. It remains our position that the NFL is responsible for the damages that she has because of his CTE.” — Family Lawyer Brad Sohn
“No matter what anybody wants to say about Aaron Hernandez . she will have to live with the fact that she doesn’t have a parent for the rest of her life,” Sohn said Friday. “It remains our position that the NFL is responsible for the damages that she has because of his CTE.”
Hernandez was convicted in the first homicide case in 2015 but acquitted of an unrelated double homicide in April 2017. He took his life days later in prison. His conviction was later overturned because he died before exhausting his appeals.
Doctors later found the 27-year-old Hernandez had advanced CTE on a level not previously seen in someone that young.
Sohn, in a brief in the case, called Hernandez “a generational talent” but said he “entered the NFL in 2010, even though (and amidst everyone’s full knowledge that) he had been investigated for ties to a brutal 2007 shooting. The NFL paid no mind to this and let him play.”
The daughter involved in the lawsuit is the child of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins.
“A.H., a child, committed no crime nor asked to be born into such tragic circumstances,” Sohn wrote.

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

UP NEXT

UConn Coach Geno Auriemma Breaks NCAA Wins Record With 1,217th Victory

UP NEXT

Warriors Guard De’Anthony Melton to Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

UP NEXT

Wiggins, Curry Power Warriors to Dominant Win Over Hawks

UP NEXT

Sale and Skubal Claim Cy Young Awards After Historic Pitching Triple Crown Seasons

UP NEXT

Bulldogs Stack Double-Doubles Like Burgers on a Plate to Beat Prairie View

UP NEXT

Love Seeks Redemption as Packers Prepare for 49ers Rematch

UP NEXT

With or Without Lockridge, Can Bulldogs Get Out of Their Own Way to Become Bowl Eligible?

UP NEXT

Hate Your Instagram Feed? New Reset Feature Enhances User Control

UP NEXT

Visalia’s Stephen Vogt Voted AL Manager of the Year

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

7 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

7 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

8 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

8 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

8 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

9 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

9 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

9 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

10 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

10 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

5 hours ago

5 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

6 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

6 hours ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

7 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
7 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

8 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

8 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
8 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend