Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend drops $30m lawsuit over alleged eviction
Tiger Woods’s ex-girlfriend has dropped a $30m lawsuit alleging she was unfairly evicted from the home she once shared with the golfer.
Erica Herman had filed a suit against Woods and the trust that owns his estate in Florida. But according to court documents obtained by the New York Post, she has dropped the suit as she appeals against a judge’s ruling that she must follow a non-disclosure agreement she signed with Woods in 2017.
“The Plaintiff, Erica Herman, by and through her undersigned counsel, hereby dismisses without prejudice her Complaint, filed on October 26, 2022, pending resolution of the appeal in Herman v Woods and determination of whether her claims are subject to arbitration,” the filing said.
Herman and Woods dated for a number of years – she claims they became a couple in 2015, while the golfer says the relationship began in 2017. She claimed in her lawsuit she was tricked into leaving the mansion after the broke up, contravening an oral agreement she says that allowed her to live there for another six years.
“The scheme involved convincing Ms Herman to pack for a weekend excursion to the Bahamas,” a filing from May said. “She and Mr Woods often traveled on short notice for quick getaways, and she was told this would be another such trip. So, she took a minimum of items, expecting to return home in a few days.
“Then, Mr Woods’s California lawyer, out of the blue, told her that she was not going anywhere, would never see Mr Woods again, had been locked out of the house, and could not return,” the filing said, adding that Herman then refused – but was asked – to sign a different NDA as well as an arbitration agreement.”
The damages Herman sought were for the amount it would cost to rent a similar mansion for the next six years. She later sought to be released from the non-disclosure agreement she had signed with Woods, saying he had sexually harassed her while she was working at his restaurant in Florida.
Woods denied the claims of sexual harassment and a Florida judge dismissed them as “vague and threadbare” in refusing to lift the non-disclosure agreement. Woods has also denied he unlawfully evicted Herman. His attorneys called Herman “a jilted exgirlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honor her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding”.
Woods will not compete at this week’s Open, an event he has won three times. He has not played on tour since withdrawing from April’s Masters with a foot injury.