As InterMat reported two years ago, Jordan Marshall -- who had wrestled for the Monarchs at 157 pounds -- sued ODU head coach Steve Martin and three assistants for $4 million in May 2016. The wrestler, originally from Ohio, alleged that, as a freshman in 2014, he suffered three concussions in May and June, and that head coach Steve Martin and assistants Mike Dixon, Alex Dolly and Kyle Hutter were negligent in not referring him for diagnosis and treatment and encouraging him not to complain about his injuries or seek medical attention.
Rather than let the case go to court, the individuals involved in the suit agreed to mediation and settled on the dollar amount in January 2018. However, as of last week, Marshall had not received the approximately half-million-dollar settlement, so he asked for the case to be re-opened.
"It is now over 100 days since the settlement agreement was reached and approaching four months since it was reached and the settlement proceeds have not been forthcoming," the motion said.
The case was dismissed with prejudice in May, meaning Marshall cannot file another case making the same claim.
The office of the attorney general of Virginia represented the Old Dominion coaches, whose liability insurance is provided by the state, as ODU is a state school.
The settlement is subject to administrative formalization before the money can be paid. The motion filed last month said the "premature" dismissal of the case puts Marshall at risk in the event the settlement money is not received or the formalization process "denies, revokes or reduces" the settlement.
The attorney general's office, however, said in their response to the motion filed by Marshall that approval of the governor's office was one of the conditions of the settlement, which was reached "in principle."
"Counsel for defendants at the office of the attorney general continue to work diligently to obtain the requisite signatures and approvals of the settlement," according to the response issued by the state attorney general.
When the settlement is approved, the money will be paid, it said.
Old Dominion did not have an immediate comment Friday afternoon, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Marshall, who wrestled for Troy Christian High School in western Ohio north of Dayton, alleged in his lawsuit that he did not start to get treatment for symptoms from the three concussions in spring 2014 until he later began to "convulse, vomit and spit up blood" at a wrestling camp at Virginia's Hampden-Sydney College later that year. Coaches at that camp referred Marshall to ODU's athletic trainer, according to the lawsuit filed in Norfolk Circuit Court.
As a result of these concussive injuries and delay of care, Marshall and his attorneys alleged in their 2016 lawsuit that the wrestler sustained "serious and permanent injury in the form of traumatic brain injury, and concussion and brain injury syndrome and symptoms, and other physical and psychological injuries" which would have an impact on his quality of life and earning potential going forward.
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