The Brian Davis saga, at least the Bank of America part of it, is over, for now.
In a document filed late Wednesday and accepted Thursday morning, Davis and Urban Echo Energy have voluntarily dropped their civil lawsuit against Bank of America, without prejudice.
The motion was filed at the end of Wednesday and broken by Daniel Wallach of The Athletic, who noted that the dismissal was requested two days before the deadline Federal Judge Deborah L. Boardman had given Davis and BoA’s counsels to give a status report on the state of negotiations between the two on the case – and per Wallach, “despite suggestions of a negotiated resolution at last Friday’s status conference, BofA did not join in the filing of this notice. Otherwise, there would have been a joint stipulation.”
Davis had originally filed a $500 billion suit against Bank of America, seeking those damages alleging the bank never put forward his $5.1 billion bank draft to Daniel Snyder as a legit bid for the Commanders, causing him to lose out on the chance to buy the team. He also filed a temporary restraining order motion to get the $5.1 billion bank draft he had given to BoA credited to him.
However, last week, when proceedings were heard by Judge Boardman, Bank of America’s counsel said the bank had questions about the legitimacy and genuineness of said bank draft, and shortly thereafter, the lawsuit’s monetary component was lowered and Davis withdrew the TRO motion, only seeking back the actual draft check itself.
That’s when Boardman gave the two sides a week to discuss the case and come to a joint status report, which is now moot as Davis has withdrawn the suit.
Wallach, in a Tweet thread about the situation, posited that the question now is whether BoA “will return the “unstamped” bank drafts to Davis, as requested in the complaint as an alternative remedy if BofA does not place the funds on deposit.”
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And, on his Conduct Detrimental podcast, Wallach said this about the dismissal:
“Given the judge’s preliminary assessment of the case in which she appeared skeptical of Urban Echo’s claims, Davis may have weighed the very low likelihood of success versus the huge downside risk of further scrutiny, and decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
And, as we know that Davis’ counsel, Jeffrey Martin, does not have liability insurance in Virginia, Wallach also posited to Front Office Sports that “while the court may have closed the books on this case, Bank of America may have different ideas, not to mention a legal obligation, regarding the next steps.”
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