Florida judge has rejected attempts by Tiger Woods’s ex-girlfriend to void a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Erica Herman, 39, who was an employee of Woods before entering into a five-year relationship with him from 2017, had sought to nullify the NDA, citing loopholes involving sexual harassment cases.
In a court ruling, circuit judge Elizabeth Metzger granted Woods’s requests for private arbitration as Herman had not provided “factual specificity for any claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment”.
Judge Metzger also described Herman’s allegations as “vague and threadbare”.
Herman, who is pursuing $30million (£24 million) from a trust that owns Woods’s Florida mansion, alleges the golfer threatened to fire her if she didn’t sign the non-disclosure agreement.
She claims their relationship ended in October after she was told to meet the 15-times major champion at the airport for a trip to the Bahamas but was instead met by Woods’s lawyer, who “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”.
Before they dated, Woods hired Herman in 2014 to help develop and then operate his sports bar and restaurant.
Her lawsuit relates to an “oral tenancy deal”, which she claims allowed her to live at Woods’s mansion for 11 years, where she provided “valuable services” for him.
Herman says in her court filings that their romantic relationship began in 2015 and that in late 2016 she moved into Woods’ nearly 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-meter) mansion in the ritzy Hobe Sound community.
She says that Woods verbally promised she could live there for at least 11 more years in 2017. Herman says Woods pressured her to quit the job in 2020 so she could spend more time taking care of him and his children.
Woods, in his court documents, says their romantic relationship began in 2017 and that she moved in with him that August, about the time the disputed non-disclosure agreement 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.