Southern Methodist Retains Legal Cost Award in Women Rowers Suit

Southern Methodist University is entitled to recover its legal costs after substantially prevailing in a negligence and civil rights lawsuit filed against it by women’s rowing team members, the Fifth Circuit said.

The US district court for the Northern District of Texas didn’t err by finding that SMU provided “adequate proof” to demonstrate the “necessity” of the costs it was awarded, a unanimous three-judge panel with the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said on Monday.

The eight plaintiffs are former student-athletes who say they sustained “serious” hip injuries between 2012 and 2015 while competing as members of ...