On Nov. 13, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland allowed two of three claims to proceed in a lawsuit accusing Northwestern of concealing internal disputes with former Feinberg Prof. Teepu Siddique, while soliciting millions in research funding for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis from the non-profit Neurodegenerative Disease Research.
NDR sued NU in March on counts of fraudulent concealment, breach of contract and equitable accounting, alleging that after NDR made $3.36 million in research funding payments, the University failed to provide annual reports and delivered “no material progress on ALS research resulted from NDR’s donation” following Siddique’s departure from NU.
Rowland let the fraudulent concealment and equitable accounting claims move forward, while dismissing the breach of contract claim, writing in a memorandum that NDR failed to demonstrate that it had suffered monetary damages.
Headquartered in Florida, NDR was founded by Dr. Siobhan Ellison in March 2020 to fund research on ALS. The nonprofit was backed by a friend and ALS patient who directed NDR to use his financial resources.
Ellison connected with Siddique, a longtime ALS researcher at Feinberg, and later met with both him and Assistant Feinberg Dean Andrew Christopherson.
Afterward, Siddique recommended that NDR provide research funding to NU — which the memo said occurred with the understanding that the funded research would be “under his direction.”
In April 2021, NDR and NU signed their first gift agreement, with $1,610,000 allocated by NDR for two ALS projects. Talks soon shifted to a larger, long-term project. Ultimately, NDR committed $12.5 million to NU over five years, with the money to be paid through semiannual payments.
The lawsuit alleged both agreements were made with the stipulation that NU provide an annual financial report about the use of NDR funding. Additionally, the memo said NDR claimed both NU and Siddique implied that “Dr. Siddique and/or his laboratory at Northwestern” would also be in charge of that second funding agreement.
At the end of 2022, Siddique told NDR that he would be leaving NU the following year.
NDR subsequently learned that Siddique’s relationship with NU had been “strained” since 2019, when Siddique filed a lawsuit against the University alleging that NU had breached his contract by trying to force him out of the work for which he was hired, according to the memo. The two parties settled in February 2022.
n the memo, Rowland disagreed with NU’s claims that NDR did not allege the University concealed their ongoing litigation with Siddique with the intent to “induce a false belief.” She also found NU’s failure to provide financial reports left NDR with no other way to determine where its money went — a key reason she allowed the equitable accounting claim to proceed.
An in-person hearing has been set for Dec. 16 to “discuss discovery and possible resolutions to the case,” according to CourtListener, the Free Law Project’s court data archive.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Rowland’s argument in the memo. Rowland disagreed with Northwestern’s claims about NDR’s allegations. The University did not claim it intended to “induce a false belief” by concealing litigation. The Daily regrets the error.
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