http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...s/news-story/51e21a2115f81f3ed47a6f99bddc0637
Anthony Watmough to cash in if Parramatta legal action succeeds
Anthony Watmough stands to reap a $300,000-plus personal windfall if Parramatta are successful in a landmark legal action against the NRL’s insurer QBE, over its denial of a career-ending payout to the former Eels star.
The Australian understands the Eels have struck an unprecedented deal to pay Watmough between 20 and 30 per cent of any damages they win against QBE. This legal deal was a key part of his severance package from the club.
Parramatta’s action could open the floodgates to similar arrangements in the NRL, as medical retirements in the code soared over the past year.
The unprecedented deal was struck when Parramatta agreed to pay Watmough a final package understood to have been $1.2 million, being the full $600,000 a year he was due to be paid on his playing contract by the Eels.
The settlement between the Eels and Watmough did not include $450,000 in unauthorised third-party agreements the player had been promised for 2017 and 2018 under the previous Parramatta board, which was sacked by the NSW government last year.
While Parramatta’s new administration did not make the third-party payments to Watmough as part of the severance package, it instead offered him an alternative potential windfall: cutting him in on any upside from the court case, without him having to pay any of the legal costs.
The Australian understands the Eels are in advanced stages of preparing a lawsuit against QBE for $1.2m, the full amount of the contract that the club has had to wear for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. A 20 to 30 per cent stake of this could see the former star forward pocket anything between $240,000 and $360,000.
The Eels have in recent weeks briefed King & Wood Mallesons to proceed with the action.
The action has come about because of an adverse ruling from QBE about what caused the end to Watmough’s career.
Parramatta have always maintained Watmough suffered his career-ending injury in February last year, in a “friendly fire” pre-season training mishap with Eels teammate Beau Scott.
The insurer took a different view. While QBE confirmed in a letter last year the assessment that Watmough was “no longer able to play in the NRL competition”, it claimed the incapacity was the result of “an established medical degenerative condition”, specifically “osteoarthritis” in his left knee. “Prior to the accident you were experiencing ongoing symptoms and disability relating to your left knee,” the insurer wrote to Watmough.
QBE listed four dates in January and February last year in which it claimed his knee was “intermittently symptomatic”, citing notes by the club physiotherapist.
A QBE spokesman maintained the company line, saying “the medical examiner’s report was clear — it wasn’t a new injury that forced (Watmough’s) retirement, rather the result of chronic and degenerative problems that have been well documented”.
But Parramatta chairman Max Donnelly is adamant it was the training accident with Scott that ended his career, after he was “training and ready to play” the 2016 NRL season.
Donnelly has told
The Australian: “Our club doctor said he was ready to go that season. I’m told that impact (with Beau Scott) was the end of his career. It was a career-ending moment.”
He has previously described QBE’s denial of the claim as “outrageous”, and asked the question: “Why do we have insurance?”
Donnelly has confirmed Watmough will receive a percentage of any damages the Eels win from the court case.
“Under the terms of the termination of his contract, he will receive a percentage of any recoveries,” he said.
QBE’s ruling has huge significance for the NRL’s 16 clubs. It creates a time-bomb for other players hit with career-ending injuries — with more believed to have lodged claims with QBE since Watmough — and potentially leaves clubs liable for millions in payouts they thought were covered by the insurer.
Donnelly said Watmough had been “co-operating” with the club’s legal action. He has been meeting with doctors, and will support the Eels’ legal case with medical evidence.
The club’s decision to use King & Wood Mallesons, one of the country’s biggest lawyers, also highlights the fact that it has broken ranks with its previous retained lawyer, John de Mestre. Donnelly said the club would now use Mallesons for “most major (legal) matters”.
Donnelly said it had “become apparent” that there “might have been a potential conflict of interest (for de Mestre at the Eels), because he may have given some advice to the previous directors”.
