The son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was unable to make a federal case against Duke University for kicking him off the golf team.
A federal judge in Greensboro on Tuesday dismissed the 20-month-old case that Andrew Giuliani filed against his alma mater.
U.S. District Judge William Osteen said in his order that there was no evidence of a contract between Giuliani and Duke that assured him a spot on the golf team and a lifetime membership to university "state-of-the-art" golf facilities.
In the lawsuit, filed in the Middle District of North Carolina in July 2008, Giuliani claimed Duke reneged on a $200,000 contract with him when the golf coach cut him from the team.
Giuliani tried to persuade the court that a Duke golf coach entered a contract with him when telling him in high school that if he came to Duke and paid $200,000 in tuition and fees for his four-year undergraduate education that he could try out for a spot on the golf team and have lifetime access to "state-of-the-art" golf facilities.
Duke disputed Giuliani's depiction of that as a contract, and in numerous court documents and hearings Duke argued that such statements described potential benefits available to the then-aspiring professional golfer.
In May 2009, Wallace Dixon, a federal magistrate judge assigned to the matter, suggested that the case be thrown out of court in an opinion peppered with golf terms and a reference to "Caddyshack," the comedy starring Bill Murray. Dixon described Giuliani's claims as "a swing and a miss" and "attempting to take a mulligan."
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