Judge Smails dismisses Andrew Giuliani's suit

OK, it wasn't Judge Smails. But the movie "Caddyshack" nonetheless played a role in the case. Wallace W. Dixon, United States Magistrate Judge, invoked Carl Spackler commentary from "Caddyshack" in recommending the dismissal of Andrew Giuliani's suit that claimed that Duke University breached a contract for booting him from the Blue Devils golf team last year.

"Plaintiffs promissory estoppel claim," Dixon wrote in his opinion, "which was not argued in his brief, brings to mind Carl Spackler's analysis from the movie Caddyshack (Orion Pictures 1980): 'He's on the final hole. He's about 455 yards away, he's going to hit about a 2 iron, I think.'"

How Giuliani's promissory estoppel claim brings Spackler to mind is unclear. What is clear is that Dixon decreed that Giuliani, son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, "failed to establish the elements of a breach of contract claim."

The website The Smoking Gun has the opinion here.

For more on the Giuliani case, you can also read this Dave Kindred piece from last December's Golf Digest.

-- John Strege