An attorney for former LSUfootball coach Ed Orgeron argued to the h Supreme Court on Tuesday that his from his $17 million buyout, saying that Orgeron received and earned the money after they were divorced.
He and an attorney for Kelly Orgeron made opposite arguments to the state's high court in New Orleans over the divorce case. Ed Orgeron filed for divorce from his wife in 2020 shortly after winning the College Football National Championship. LSU fired Orgeron in 2021 with a $17 million buyoutafter the divorce proceedings were underway.
Kelly Orgeron has argued in court that she is entitled to some of the money from his termination agreement and previous salary. Her argument has largely hinged on a 2020 agreement that Ed Orgeron and LSU signed for $42 million before he filed for divorce. By the time the LSU board of supervisors approved that deal,the divorce case had been opened in court.
Robert Lowe, an attorney for Kelly Orgeron, said that she sacrificed her career as a nurse practitioner to emotionally support her husband in his coaching career and raise their children. Once LSU won the national championship in 2020, Lowe said that Ed Orgeron told his wife, "we finally made it."
The high was short-lived.
“He had his agent call her and tell her he filed for divorce, he didn’t do it himself, and you can take from that what you will," Lowe told the Supreme Court. “I believe his plan was to deprive her from this money."
But Randy Smith, representing Ed Orgeron, said the coach paid his ex-wife half of what he earned in the 43 days that lapsed between him inking a contract extension with LSU and filing for divorce. The contract extension raised his salary to roughly $7 million a year.
Smith said that Ed Orgeron also paid his ex-wife half of the money in incentives he received for winning the national championship. The coach earned $1.775 million in incentives for his performance after the 2019 to 2020 football season, which Smith said he split with his wife.
Smith asked the court to focus less on the dates of when Orgeron signed contracts with LSU, and more of the substance of them. He said Ed Orgeron's raise after winning the national championship still required him to work.
Courts have agreed so far with Ed Orgeron, ruling that his ex-wife was not entitled to money from his salary and buyout after they were divorced. They've ruled that the money was not reward for past performance, but compensation for future work.
“The time and expenditure of the labor is what counts, not the date of the contract execution,” Smith said. “Here, the good work that Coach O did led to a raise … but he still had to go to work and he could be fired any time.”
Smith warned that if the court ruled in Kelly Orgeron's favor, it could open up the floodgates.
“Any spouse could come in however many years later and argue that any raise and any future job was birthed during the marriage," he said.
LSU is still paying out Orgeron's $17 million buyout nearly four years after firing him. The deal called for splitting the money into 18 installments from 2021 through 2025. Orgeron is set to receive his three final paymentslater this year: $426,000 in June, $750,000 in July and $426,000 in December.
Three justices on the state Supreme Court recused themselves from hearing the case.
Chief Justice John Weimer wrote in a recusal motion that he has "a personal friendship with one of the parties," while Justice John Michael Guidry wrote in a filing that he "performed a judicial act in a related cause in another court." Justice Will Crain did not elaborate on his reasons for recusing, and in his motion referenced the state's Code of Civil Procedure to "avoid the appearance of bias or prejudice."
Replacing the three of them were three retired judges sitting ad hoc: former Third Circuit Court of Appeal judge John Conery; former state Supreme Court justice Joseph Bleich; and former 22nd Judicial District judge Martin Coady.
Staff Writer John Simerman contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to correct the amount of incentive compensation that Ed Orgeron earned for the 2019 to 2020 season.
