Facts

Derek Boogaard was a 250-pound, six-footer hockey enforcer that signed a $6.5 million, four-year contract with the New York Rangers in July 2010. He had a powerful addiction to narcotics and sleeping pills. In May 12, 2011, the 28-year-old died of an overdose in his apartment.

An autopsy revealed that Boogaard had suffered from a chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of dementia that affected individuals who have sustained repeated concussions. Friends and family described how Boogaard spent the last year of his life sullen, manic and lonely. He suffered constant headaches and memory lapses.

Boogaard's parents alleged that team doctors had gotten their son hooked on the drugs that eventually killed him and that the team owed Boogaard's estate the remainder of the compensation that would have been paid to him under his employment contract. In September, 2012, Boogaard's estate sued The National Hockey League Players Association, claiming that the Association breached its duty of fair representation by refusing to file a grievance when the team refused to pay that additional compensation to Boogaard's estate. The Association asserted that it did not file a grievance because any such grievance would have been without merit, and that the Complaint was barred by the applicable six-month statute of limitations.

Result

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright converted the defendants' Motion to Dismiss to a Motion for Summary Judgment and found the parents' lawsuit was untimely filed because the complaint was filed after the expiration of the six month statute of limitations. The Court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the statute of limitations should be equitably tolled.