A pretrial hearing scheduled for this week has been postponed to January in a civil suit filed against Emporia State University by former senior associate athletic director Darian Westerfield.

Westerfield filed the suit in April, alleging ESU breached his employment contract when he was terminated without receiving the compensation outlined in the agreement. According to the petition, Westerfield and the university entered into a contract in May 2023, which was set to run through May 2026. Under the contract, if he were terminated before the expiration date, he was to receive a lump-sum payment equal to 66 percent of the remaining contract value.

The contract identified only three circumstances in which ESU could terminate Westerfield without owing the lump-sum payout:

• insufficient fu

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