Golf icon Tiger Woods’ former girlfriend has decided to drop a $30 million lawsuit against the 15-time major champion’s estate, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.
Erica Herman’s dismissal of the lawsuit was filed late last month on June 29, pending her appeal of a judge’s decision that she must abide by a 2017 nondisclosure agreement she purportedly signed with Woods.
“The Plaintiff, Erica Herman, by and through her undersigned counsel, hereby dismisses without prejudice her Complaint, filed on October 26, 2022, pending resolution of the appeal in Herman v. Woods and determination of whether her claims are subject to arbitration,” the filing said, according to the New York Post.
Herman filed the lawsuit against both Woods and the trust that owns his $54 million Florida mansion, asking for $30 million from the latter amid unspecified allegations of sexual harassment. She requested in March to be removed from the NDA, saying Woods was wrongfully using it against her and citing a federal law that prevents the enforcement of NDAs in instances of sexual assault and harassment.
But Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger rejected Herman’s request in May, calling her allegations “vague and threadbare” and saying Herman did not “provide factual specificity for any claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment.”
Herman’s representation has stated they plan to appeal Metzger’s ruling. Woods, who has denied vehemently Herman’s accusations of sexual harassment, has not commented on the dropped lawsuit.
Woods, 47 years-of-age, is not taking part in this week’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and has not played a PGA Tour event since withdrawing from the Masters in April because of a foot injury.
In her unlawful-eviction lawsuit against the trust, Herman was basing her $30 million claim on how much it would cost to rent a property like Woods’ beachfront mansion north of Palm Beach for the six years of residence she was allegedly promised by the golfer and then denied. Herman alleges she was tricked into going on a short vacation and that when she arrived at the airport, agents for Woods “told her she had been locked out of her residence” and would not be allowed to return.
Herman and Woods also do not agree when their romantic relationship and cohabitation started.
Herman says the relationship began in 2015 and that in late 2016 she moved into Woods’ nearly 30,000-square-foot mansion in the exclusive Hobe Sound community. She says that in 2017, Woods verbally promised she could reside there at least 11 more years and that in 2020, he pressured her to quit her job so she could spend more time taking care of him and his children.
Woods says their relationship began in 2017 and that she moved in with him that August, about the time the disputed NDA was signed. In March 2017, Woods had put the mansion into the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, an entity he created that has only himself and his two children as beneficiaries.
Herman, who managed Woods’ Palm Beach County restaurant before and during the first years of their relationship, alleged that Woods threatened to fire her if she did not sign the 2017 NDA. In her lawsuit against Woods, Herman asked Metzger to either void the NDA or at least give her guidance about what she can say publicly. She also argued that the contract covers only her work relationship with Woods, not their personal matters.
