A Title IX athletics case, brought by former women students who were intercollegiate wrestlers at the University of California, Davis, against the University and certain of its officials for discrimination under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.  The University of California and former UC Davis students and women wrestlers Arezou Mansourian, Christine Ng, and Lauren Mancuso, on Feb. 16, 2012, reached an agreement to settle the issues remaining after the findings made by a federal judge last August in the liability phase of trial in the case.  The court found that the University violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by not sufficiently expanding intercollegiate athletic opportunities for female students at UC Davis between 1998 and 2005, the years that plaintiffs were in attendance.  The court dismissed Plaintiffs’ claim against four University employees (all now retired), holding that they did not violate the Equal Protection Clause or were entitled to qualified immunity in their handling of plaintiffs’ requests relating to women’s wrestling.

Plaintiffs appealed and the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment and held as well that the defendant university was not entitled to summary judgment on the alternative ground that it had complied with Title IX.  It also reversed the order dismissing the plaintiffs’ equal protection claim and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.  Mansourian v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 602 F.3d 957 (2010).

The damages phase of the trial on the Title IX claim was scheduled to start on March 5, 2012. The parties chose instead to resolve all remaining issues, including any possible appeals, with payment by the University of $1,350,000 to plaintiffs’ counsel for attorneys’ fees and costs incurred during the lengthy case.  The case was dismissed on April 12, 2012.