DULUTH – The University of Minnesota Duluth and its former women's hockey coach have reached a $4.5 million settlement, concluding another chapter of a long-running discrimination lawsuit.
Shannon Miller, who sued her former employer more than four years ago alleging discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, will receive $2.1 million, and her attorneys will get $2.4 million, court documents say.
"It's a good feeling to have this put to rest," Miller said, "but the best feeling ever was March of 2018 when the jury read the verdict. Because that's when we won."
"My players are watching, and they're learning from me," she said. "I, within seconds, thought about them and how important it would be for me to stand up for myself."
Miller and two other former UMD coaches — softball coach Jen Banford and women's basketball coach Annette Wiles — initially filed suit against the university in federal court in 2015, a year after UMD declined to renew Miller's contract after 16 seasons and five national titles.
Most of these claims were dismissed in 2018 by a U.S. district judge, who wrote that their strongest claims did not fall under federal court jurisdiction. Only Miller's allegations of gender bias were allowed to go to trial, which concluded with a jury verdict in her favor later that year.
The settlement replaces the award Miller won from that ruling. It also precludes her from appealing her case at the federal level, like Banford and Wiles, who are fighting the dismissal of their federal claims in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
That litigation is on hold pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on a similar case that could set a precedent on whether sexual orientation is protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A decision is expected by June.
