Tiger Woods wins round one as ex-girlfriend’s request to void NDA is rejected

A Florida judge ruled in Tiger Woods’s favour on Wednesday as she rejected a request by his former girlfriend to void a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that was signed during their relationship.

Lawyers for Erica Herman, 39, had cited the Speak Out Act, a clause in federal law that states an NDA connected to claims of sexual harassment can be declared void, which would have allowed a separate $30 million (£24 million) eviction suit against the trust that owns Woods’s Florida mansion to be heard in a public court.

Woods, 47, said that the NDA, which Herman signed in 2017, should mean that any disputes go straight to private arbitration, and Judge Elizabeth Metzger of the Circuit Court in Martin County, Florida, agreed with the golfer on Wednesday, describing Herman’s allegations as “vague and threadbare”.

“Herman has had the opportunity to provide factual specificity for any claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment, however, she has not done so,” Metzger wrote.

Herman’s lawyers had previously argued that Woods failed to “authenticate” the NDA, but the judge also noted that Herman did not unequivocally deny signing the agreement.

The ruling, barring a successful appeal, means the hearing will be conducted in private, although several details of the case have come to light in court filings in recent months.

Herman, who managed Woods’s restaurant in Jupiter, Florida when the pair first became romantically involved, claims their relationship ended in October 2022 after she was told to meet the 15-times major champion at the airport for a trip to the Bahamas.

“But instead of boarding the plane, Woods told Herman to talk to his lawyer, and Woods left,” Herman’s lawyers wrote. “Then, Woods’s lawyer, out of the blue, told her she was not going anywhere, would never see Woods again, had been locked out of the house, and could not return.”Herman’s lawsuit relates to an “oral tenancy deal”, which she claims allowed her to live at Woods’s $54 million mansion in Jupiter for 11 years.

The complaint says she provided “valuable services” at Woods’s request as part of the agreement. The $30 million sum Herman is seeking in damages is related to the remainder of that agreement and the comparable rent.

Woods’s lawyers have disputed that there was ever a written or oral tenancy agreement and described Herman as “a jilted ex-girlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honour her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding”.

Herman, who claimed she quit her job in 2020 after Woods pressured her to spend more time taking care of him and his children, claimed that the NDA she signed in 2017 constituted sexual harassment. “A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Herman’s lawyers wrote, and added: “The landlord made the availability of her housing conditional on her having a sexual relationship with a co-tenant.”

Under the terms of the NDA, Herman was barred from showing cards, photographs, documents or texts relating to Woods to her family and friends.

In addition, she agreed not to disclose any details of Woods’s diet, rehab, training techniques, sexual matters, leisure activities and personal relationships.

Herman expressed concerns about signing the agreement in an email to Woods’s chief financial officer, Christopher Hubman, on August 7, 2017, writing: “My only concern is if by chance TW does something that brings our relationship to an end, do I automatically lose my job? I don’t have any problems with what’s in the document because I wouldn’t go public or use anything I know to hurt him or the kids [Woods’s two children with his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren] but with my whole life in his hands I would want to have some kind of control over my future in the business. If something happened five to ten years down the road I don’t want to be in my 40s heartbroken and jobless. Thoughts?”

Hubman said he believed Herman’s job and her romantic relationship with Woods were separate. “I don’t think the end of one automatically impacts the other . . . although I admit it could be complicated,” he wrote. “It will most likely depend on the terms, condition or reason for the relationship ending.”

Woods, who has played two tournaments this year, is not in the field at this week’s PGA Championship after withdrawing during the third round of the Masters in April and undergoing ankle surgery.