Jerry Falwell Jr. files lawsuit against Liberty University over alleged owed benefits

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Liberty University is facing a new lawsuit -- this one coming from its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., which was filed in the U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Falwell filed the lawsuit over denied retirement payments since his departure in 2020.

He claims the school owes him over $8.5M.

Liberty and Falwell agreed to a retirement plan back in 2019, when he renegotiated his employment contract, according to the court filings.

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The lawsuit says Falwell was due $7.6M back in 2020 in his retirement account.

Each year after that, the account was supposed to be credited an additional 6% investment return, now reaching that $8.5M figure he says he's owed.

The lawsuit claims Liberty is unjustly denying those payments because of pending litigation between them in another case.

Back in 2021, Liberty sued Falwell for $10M, claiming Falwell negotiated his new contract in bad faith, without disclosing the scandal involving a Miami pool attendant that was about to unfold.

Falwell is claiming he resigned without cause, and therefore the contract stands.

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The lawsuit says Liberty denied the payments, which were set to start this past September.

Falwell filed a claim, which Liberty denied, and later denied his appeal.

The lawsuit says that Falwell exhausted all options for disputes laid out in their agreement, before filing suit.

We reached out to Liberty University for comment on the matter, and they responded with the following statement:

This claim is part of a larger dispute currently pending in state court. The University will defend the new action on the same grounds it has already pled on the record in the state case. Liberty is confident it is not legally required to pay these funds and will file the appropriate responses with the federal court.