Miami — Skilled golf legend Jack Nicklaus has gained a $50 million verdict in a defamation lawsuit filed in Florida in opposition to his former enterprise companions.
A six-person jury in Palm Seashore County discovered Monday that the Nicklaus Firms had broken the 18-time main champion’s fame and uncovered him to ridicule, hatred, distrust, mistrust or contempt. Nicklaus Firms proprietor and govt chairman Howard Milstein and govt Andrew O’Brien had been additionally named individually as defendants, however jurors didn’t discover them personally liable.
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus speaks through the trophy ceremony after the ultimate spherical of the Memorial Event offered by Workday on June 1, 2025, at Muirfield Village Golf Membership in Dublin, Ohio.
Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures
Eugene Stearns, an legal professional for Nicklaus, stated Nicklaus has spent his life serving to others and incomes a fame as not only a nice athlete however an incredible human being.
“He deserved better than what he got, and we’re pleased that the jury addressed the particular circumstances that were so annoying,” Stearns stated.
In line with the lawsuit, Nicklaus, 85, claimed Milstein, O’Brien and others on the firm unfold false tales that Nicklaus thought-about a $750 million deal to affix the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf League and that he was affected by dementia and now not mentally match to handle his affairs.
Protection attorneys stated at trial that Nicklaus Firms executives by no means tried to defame Nicklaus and argued the case was mainly a enterprise dispute. They stated no hurt was finished to Nicklaus’ fame and that there was no purpose for an organization that shared the golfer’s identify to assault him.
Earlier this 12 months, a New York choose dismissed a lawsuit filed by Nicklaus Firms in opposition to Nicklaus that tried to stop the golfer from utilizing his identify, picture and likeness to advertise his golf course design enterprise.
Nicklaus joined Nicklaus Firms in 2007 as a part of a $145 million deal however ultimately give up and deliberate to proceed designing golf programs on his personal.
Whereas Nicklaus is as soon as once more free to design golf programs underneath his personal identify, Nicklaus Firms retains the rights to promote clothes and tools with “Jack Nicklaus” logos.
