Auburn and former baseball coach Sunny Golloway have reached a settlement in Golloway's wrongful termination lawsuit against the university and administrators in the athletics department, according to court records.
The two sides agreed in writing to a settlement on Jan. 12, according to a motion filed by Golloway's attorney, John Saxon, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Tuesday.
"The matter has been resolved by mutual agreement," an Auburn University spokesman said in a statement to AL.com on Thursday afternoon. "The University has no further comment at this time."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody issued an order filed Thursday that both sides file a join stipulation for dismissal by Feb. 8 after having reached "an amicable settlement of all issues."
The settlement comes nearly 20 months after Golloway first filed a federal complaint against Auburn's Board of Trustees and athletics administrators, including outgoing athletics director Jay Jacobs, former Auburn athletics chief operating officer and current UConn athletics director David Benedict, senior associate athletics director Rich McGlynn, former director of baseball operations Scott Duval and athletics administrator Jeremy Roberts. Golloway filed his lawsuit against the defendants on May 24, 2016, eight months after he was fired with cause as Auburn's baseball coach.
According to the motion filed Tuesday, a resolution was reached by both sides on Friday -- but not without some drama. Earlier that day, Saxon filed a separate motion to withdraw as Golloway's attorney because the two "developed diverging views regarding the manner and means by which this case should be prosecuted."
Saxon filed a motion to withdraw that motion on Tuesday, noting that after filing the motion to withdraw as Golloway's attorney, Golloway contacted Saxon and, after numerous phone conversations and emails before the two "reconciled their differences." Golloway's side and the university, which was being represented by Birmingham-based law firm Lightfoot, Franklin & White, then continued settlement discussions and came to a resolution later that day.
When reached by AL.com on Thursday afternoon, Golloway said he was unable to comment on the matter.
"The matter has been resolved," Saxon said in a statement to AL.com on Thursday afternoon. "I am unable to elaborate upon that simple statement at this time."
Golloway was fired from Auburn on Sept. 27, 2015 following two seasons as the Tigers' baseball coach. The university cited 11 violations of the terms of his contract, which allowed the school to fire Golloway with cause. Golloway categorically denied all of the violations during a 75-minute press conference at Saxon's Birmingham-based office on Nov. 2, 2015.
In firing Golloway with cause, it permitted Auburn to withhold the remaining $1.25 million owed to the coach through the duration of the contract. When Jacobs informed Golloway he was being terminated, Golloway reportedly asked Jacobs if the school was going to honor the terms of the contract, to which Jacobs reportedly and infamously replied, "I don't plan on giving you a dime, brother."
Golloway then filed the wrongful termination suit against the university and athletics administrators before a federal judge dismissed all but one of the charges. The lone remaining charge was for "intentional interference of contractual relations," which was not dismissed because Alabama courts have set precedent that "a coworker acts outside his authority and with malice when he repeatedly spreads fabrications or otherwise maneuvers to get a plaintiff fired," according to court documents filed in September.
The resolution of the Golloway case came just before Auburn introduced Jacobs' successor. Auburn president Steven Leath briefly addressed the matter on Friday after new athletics director Allen Greene was officially introduced.
"I will catch him up," Leath said of getting Greene up to speed on the various legal issues and investigations involving Auburn teams. "As many of those as I can clean up before he gets here, like the Golloway issue, I've obviously tried to do so that he can start with as clean and fresh a slate as possible. But there will be some things that hold over. In a big complex organization, there are always issues it's a rare time that there are no legal issues.
"We'll get him up to speed and get him comfortable he's a senior executive, he'll handle these things largely on his own with conversations with me but I'll make sure he's got all the support and information before we turn him to that."
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.