The Statute of Limitations and Mary Cain's Claims

Alberto Salazar started grooming her for abuse when she was 16 years old. That is what child abusers do. Like I mentioned in the above thread, he psychologically harmed her by fat shaming and sexually harassing her in front of her teammates. That is abuse. She stopped menstruating, and broke 5 bones in her body. Nike is responsible for all of this. She was starved and abused. She was very young when this happened, and did not even realize what was going on. $20 million is nothing to Nike. I am not surprised at all by her lawsuit as her Father is a doctor in NYC. . Any physician, could tell you that what he was doing was abuse. Not having a certified nutritionist or certified psychologist on board was fraud. Ultimately, Nike is responsible. I hope she wins....

The 20M is way on the conservative side: Nike is a 250B dollar company.

The statute of limitations argument has already sailed, they aren't quite toast, but lhey're close.

The chickens are coming home to roost.

What Nike legal really needs to focus on is preempting a 200M class action.

pillfouch wrote:

Not having a certified nutritionist or certified psychologist on board was fraud. Ultimately, Nike is responsible. I hope she wins....

Across the world in all sports, how many coaches employ certified nutritionists and certified psychologists? I'm guessing the answer is less that 0.01%. It certainly would have been a good idea, but Nike not having them is not going to be a factor in Cain winning a judgment based on abuse.

Alberto Salazar is a twisted, toxic man. I am surprised there have not been more lawsuits against him in the past. Let this go to trial and see how the jury reacts...

pillfouch wrote:

Alberto Salazar is a twisted, toxic man. I am surprised there have not been more lawsuits against him in the past. Let this go to trial and see how the jury reacts...

Agreed. This is going to be interesting.

pillfouch wrote:

I think she has a strong case of abuse and general negligence. Nike was responsible for the management of the Nike Oregon Project. There was no certified psychologist or nutritionist on staff. She was a minor child. If I were on the jury I would give her the full $20 Million. Nike was negligent . The constant fat shaming was very damaging to a 16 - 18 year old female. The fact she was cuting herself and was suicidal is very dangerous. They should have immediately called her parents and brought her to a psychiatrist. The whole NOP sounds like an abusive cult. I hope she wins.

I don't know anything about the SOL here, but I have a hard time believing two experienced attorneys would file this thing if it's easily dismissible.

Definitely think negligence is the strongest cause of action in this case. Does the ordinary reasonable coach with the resources this program had bring in nutritionists and doctors to consult with athletes when issues like Cain's arise? How do other well funded programs deal with such issues?

I certainly don't think Salazar intended to cause harm to any of his athletes. He's presumably a type A ultra competitive control freak that really pushed to get everything he could out of his athletes, and he did have a lot of success.

pillfouch wrote:

Alberto Salazar is a twisted, toxic man. I am surprised there have not been more lawsuits against him in the past. Let this go to trial and see how the jury reacts...

I'd be interested to see a Jury Trial and put Sifan, Mary Slaney, Shannon, Jordan, Treniere Moser, Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, etc as witnesses.

Today, if he treated women differently than men, then it is considered sexist. If he treated them the same, then he is an abuser to women. You cannot please the Modern Feminists.

pillfouch wrote:

Actually I do not think Alberto Salazar was a good coach, from what I have read, he is a doper and a cheater. I really do not care how many medals his athletes won, he cheated. He stole the medals. Salazar is a fraud and it is really sad that a young impressionable 16 year old's life was put on the line. Mary Cain has a case...let the jury decide....

Whether Salazar was a bad coach or cheated aren't factors in Mary Cain's lawsuit. She makes no claim at all of doping. And she was not 16 (nor 17) when any of the alleged abuse occurred.

There seem to be many posters on her who feel that because in their opinion Salazar is a bad guy, therefore Mary Cain should win her lawsuit. Fortunately, our legal system doesn't work that way.

Mary Cain needs to crawl in a hole and never come back. I am a woman, I was repeatedly raped by a family member when I was a child, he was a cop, he got away with horrific amounts of abuse for years. He was investigated by Internal Affairs for different crimes, and allowed to retire with a full pension. WHERE IS MY F**KING MONEY.

There are legitimate rape victims who never receive any justice, let alone $20 million.

STFU Mary Cain. Boo hoo, someone called you fat. I am so sick of these WEAK, whiny women.

She wouldn't know a real crime if it hit her in the face.

astro wrote:

Exactly.

I think Cain's case on its face has more merit than people may admit. She was still a teeeanger when she entered into the contract with Nike (if I recall she was 16) and Salazar had a tremendous amount of control. She even lived with him. Now maybe she is a really bad witness and the jury hates her. Or maybe Nike can prove she is lying. That aside, pressuring a female athlete at her age to severely restrict her caloric intact and maintain an unhealthy weight is a recipe for disaster and really debilitating injuries. We talk about that endlessly on this site.

Your "Pro-Mary Cain" side is shining through. I'm sure Nike covered their butts in the contract knowing she was a minor.

"pressuring a female athlete at her age to severely restrict her caloric intact and maintain an unhealthy weight is a recipe for disaster and really debilitating injuries".

The above comment is purely subjective unless there is strong reliable testimony supporting it. Don't forget, you're dealing with an athlete, not an office worker at a desk job with a mean boss. Alberto's job as a coach was to train her (and all of his athletes) to be a world-class runner in which monitoring weight is a vital part of her success, just as having her run hill repeats, and or hard intervals which according to your view could be viewed as abusive. ALL middle distance runners train and race at what a non-runner would consider "unhealthy weight", it's par for the course. Alberto's "Big Crime" according to many bleeding hearts for Mary is the simple fact that the delivery of his coaching method offended her. Yelling at her to "pick it up" or "work harder", etc... is not grounds to sue Nike for $20 million. If you look back on the photos of Mary and Alberto laughing and celebrating when she was running well life was great, no harm no foul. Mary then becomes homesick, begins to struggle, finds herself a bit lost (as any young teenager would), and all of the sudden the professional life of a runner is not so glamorous. What was once Alberto yelling "Pick it up" and seemed a non-issue all of the sudden sounds like he's "Picking on me" and being abusive.

I firmly believe that Mary's parents are largely responsible for this situation. If they couldn't be with her, they should have been more involved with her mental and physical health. How did this get so out of hand?

Tastes Like Chicken wrote:

You are right: Under Oregon law (ORS 12.117), Cain has until she turns 40 to file for damages from abuse she suffered as a minor.

She was a minor for the first year and a half that she worked with Salazar, starting in the fall of 2012. She signed a contract with Nike in November, 2013. She turned 18 on May 3, 2014, and moved to Portland later that summer.

The Oregon statute defines child abuse an any "intentional" act that results in:

(A) Any physical injury to a child; or

(B) Any mental injury to a child which results in observable and substantial impairment of the child’s mental or psychological ability to function caused by cruelty to the child, with due regard to the culture of the child;

Fall 2012- Starts working with Salazar voluntarily in along distance coaching situation ...has stated publicly then and now that no abuse occurred during this period

Nov. 2013- Signs financial contract as a minor with parental consent, still is living under her parents watchful eye, things still going well with Salazar and running, no abuse

May 2014- Turns 18, Training with Salazar still going well, racing going well future looks bright. No abuse

Jul/Aug 2014 - Officially moves to Portland permanently and is in the NOP group full time. Wins World Junior Title at 3000m. Very successful summer, no abuse

Indoor 2015 Things start to fall apart in her running career, though she does still have "some" success through 2016

At no point does she appear to suffer damages as a minor. As an adult, yes, not pleasant, but her situation as a minor is really no different than what Tinman offers as a paid coach to many upper level minors out there, except Salazar was most likely playing the long game and doing it for free so that she would eventually sign with NOP.

At some point a child becomes an adult and is responsible for their life. At college, kids are recognized as adults. Parents can't view their medical records, their grades, or any other info that the "new adult" doesn't want them to see. It's all on them.

For a more extreme example, we can take an 18 year old in the military, train him or her for 18 months and then put him or her in a forward area in a foreign country with a rifle in their hands and ask them to make decisions about life and death, but she AS AN ADULT couldn't say, this is bull ish, I'm going back to the east coast, come and get me if you have a problem with that.

Sorry, I like a good story as much as the next guy, but this is pathetic.

So what changed for Mary between 2015 and beyond? I would actually love a Trial just to see the evidence of her timeline. To me her MeToo timing was too convenient to distance herself from a coach that was being banned.

Also the video was very similar to Kaitlyn Ohashi's video from a year earlier Aug 8, 2018. Mary Cain's video released on Nov 7, 2019. L

Imagine Alan Webb or German Fernandez blaming and suing Nike for not reaching their potential. As I recall Alberto make Alan lose weight too, right?

Baby is All Growed Up wrote:

At no point does she appear to suffer damages as a minor....

Thanks filling in the details, and matching the time line of her work relationship with Salazar to her the timing of the alleged abuses. That's very helpful.

Assuming you are right about the timing (and I'm not saying you aren't, I just don't know) then clearly the SoL for minors is irrelevant here.

kore wrote:

Imagine Alan Webb or German Fernandez blaming and suing Nike for not reaching their potential. As I recall Alberto make Alan lose weight too, right?

If I remember correctly, he also made Galen Rupp lose upper body mass prior to 2016 and asked a RW writer if he could tell Galen was skinnier.

tripstop wrote:

Cain probably alleges harms that occurred when she was a minor which may change the statute of limitations significantly. This will never see a jury. If Nike can’t get it dismissed they will settle - no way do they want to deal with the bad publicity which could be worth much more than $20 mil. Cain will have a number (lower than $20 mil) that she will accept. Nike will play hard ball to start as they don’t want copycat suits although my guess is Cain being a minor is a significant factor which applies to very few athletes.

Side point: why do people keep saying this? Did the video she released have a huge impact on Nike's bottom line? As dramatic and damaging as that video, and with the widespread press I still didn't hear how Nike's stock fell. I'm not sure this court case would be any different definitely not $20 mill worth of different.

pillfouch wrote:

I think she has a strong case of abuse and general negligence. Nike was responsible for the management of the Nike Oregon Project. There was no certified psychologist or nutritionist on staff. She was a minor child. If I were on the jury I would give her the full $20 Million. Nike was negligent . The constant fat shaming was very damaging to a 16 - 18 year old female. The fact she was cuting herself and was suicidal is very dangerous. They should have immediately called her parents and brought her to a psychiatrist. The whole NOP sounds like an abusive cult. I hope she wins.

What is your definition of abuse? Bad coaching I can get behind, but where are these "abuse" claims coming from?

Until someone can confirm that Mary Cain was coerced or physically forced not to eat, any claims of "abuse" are just dumb and weak. Do I agree with Alberto's tough love approach? Absolutely not, it turned out terrible, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it's abusive. I wrestled in high school and every day after practice coach would have us weigh ourselves, and if we weren't managing our weight we were getting chewed out because if we didn't make weight we couldn't wrestle and the whole team suffered. Nobody complained because unfortunately that was part of the game and you just had to get through it if you wanted to compete - and for most it was worth it. Where's my $20 mill?

There is a ton of evidence. Let it go to trial and let the jury decide. Salazar is banned for life that should tell you something. Doping was rampant. Mary Cain deserves the $20 million as it was a highly abusive environment where she was weight shamed and bullied.Ultimately NIke was responsible for a toxic - cult like coaching environment. Their hands are dirty.