USC has filed a series of motions challenging a lawsuit filed by a former donor and owner of Regency Outdoor Advertising, who alleges the university breached its contract by demolishing the practice field that carried his name in order to build the Bloom Football Performance Center.
Plaintiff Brian Kennedy contends in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that the removal of his name has caused him reputational harm, embarrassment and humiliation. In court papers filed Tuesday and Wednesday with Steven A. Ellis, USC is asking the judge to give priority to its bid to dismiss the case through an anti-SLAPP motion.
In the late 1990s, Kennedy made a $400,000 charitable gift to USC and the school honored him for it, according to the USC attorneys court papers.
“It celebrated him at a public dedication attended by its head football coach,” the USC lawyers further state in their court papers. “It named a football practice field after him. And it kept his name on that football practice field for more than 25 years.”
But as a part of the ongoing development of its football program, USC decided in 2021 to revamp its facilities by demolishing the aging practice field Kennedy had supported and building in its place a new, state-of-the-art facility that is the centerpiece of a $225 million athletics construction campaign, according to the USC attorneys’ court papers.
Kennedy disapproves of USC’s decision to name that new facility in honor of the donors whose support made that development possible and he now asks the court to punish USC for using its expressive rights to honor others instead of him, the USC attorneys further state in their court papers.
“No one disputes that plaintiff was a generous benefactor,” the university attorneys state in their court papers. “But that generosity does not give him the right to control USC’s speech in this way.”
The relief Kennedy wants “collides head-on with the First Amendment and California’s anti-SLAPP statute,” the USC lawyers contend in their pleadings. “USC’s decision of whom to honor, celebrate and hold out to the public as embodying its traditions and supporting its mission lies at the very heart of its expressive freedom.”
When USC named its field in recognition of Kennedy in the 1990s at a public ceremony, it was engaging in speech,” USC attorneys state in their court papers. “When it then celebrated other donors for their generosity that allowed USC to build the new facility, it was again engaging in speech,” according to the university’s lawyers court papers.
The state’s anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
Kennedy sued on July 21 and his allegations include promissory estoppel, fraud, breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation. In total, Kennedy’s direct financial contributions to USC exceeded $4 million, exclusive of the substantial value of the professional services, billboard advertising, promotional support, volunteer efforts and other resources the businessman has provided throughout the year, the suit states.
When USC had trouble finding a donor for the building of a new football practice field nearly 30 years ago, the school told Kennedy that if he donated $400,000 to the university and funded construction of the project, the field would forever bear Kennedy’s name and that it would be honor the plaintiff’s contributions to USC for generations, according to the complaint.