HHP: MASN/Nats/Orioles case (Inside the Courtroom)

[weams]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/02eef704-f830-3bbb-a2e8-074d739d7a11/ss_orioles%2C-masn-file-appellate.html

On the day the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles resumed their relatively young geographic rivalry, MASN and the Orioles filed their appellate brief to the New York Supreme Court, outlining reasons why the two organizations should have their dispute heard in a forum independent of Major League Baseball. The basic dispute, you will remember, goes something like this: The Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee of Major League Baseball (RSDC), which the teams agreed would decide who gets how much TV rights money when the Nationals first moved to town, awarded more money to the Nationals than the Orioles thought they deserved. That RSDC is comprised of people affiliated with Major League ...

[hoosiers]

I have spoken throughout this issue that the RSDC decision was an orchestrated sham and that is what the Os are putting forth in their arguments. Manfred plays the villain here - very different role than Selig. "Utter lack of concern for the fairness of the hearings"!

I'd like to see the emails that went back and forth between the MLB offices and Proskauer during the proceedings and with the issuance of the RSDC decision. I'd like to know who authored that decision.

[scOtt]

I have spoken throughout this issue that the RSDC decision was an orchestrated sham and that is what the Os are putting forth in their arguments. Manfred plays the villain here - very different role than Selig. "Utter lack of concern for the fairness of the hearings"!

I'd like to see the emails that went back and forth between the MLB offices and Proskauer during the proceedings and with the issuance of the RSDC decision. I'd like to know who authored that decision.

Strong accusations. It would be scary if they're true... Not particularly surprising but scary.

[Frobby]

Strong accusations. It would be scary if they're true... Not particularly surprising but scary.

Sorry, but they sound paranoid delusional to me. There has never been a hint of an accusation by MASN/Orioles that the Nats' lawyers had any role in writing the RSDC decision, other than submitting their arguments in briefs the same as MASN/the Orioles did.

[wildcard]

(Don't know if this has been posted. Move it if it has.)

Expert Says MLB Panel Unfit For MASN, Nationals TV Row

By Zachary Zagger

Law360, New York (September 28, 2016, 4:06 PM EDT) -- Alternative dispute resolution specialist Kenneth Feinberg told a New York appellate court that a Major League Baseball arbitration panel cannot be allowed to rehear a television rights dispute between the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and the Washington Nationals, arguing the league panel is the “poster child for everything that an arbitration should not be.”

http://www.law360.com/articles/845644/expert-says-mlb-panel-unfit-for-masn-nationals-tv-row

[Frobby]

News has been quiet on this for a while.    I believe the Appellate Division is scheduled to hear MASN's appeal some time this month, but I haven't been able to find any information on exactly when it is scheduled.

[weams]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

News has been quiet on this for a while.    I believe the Appellate Division is scheduled to hear MASN's appeal some time this month, but I haven't been able to find any information on exactly when it is scheduled.

Let us know what you find. Thanks as always. 

[weams]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-orioles-nationals-dispute-20170331-story.html

[weams]

Case

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-orioles-nationals-dispute-20170331-story.html

[weams]

Still

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-orioles-nationals-dispute-20170331-story.html

[SteveA]

25 minutes ago, weams said:

Still

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-orioles-nationals-dispute-20170331-story.html

"the same dirty swimming pool"... I like that

[Frobby]

Here's another take on the hearing:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/orioles-nationals-met-with-skepticism-by-ny-appellate-court/2017/0

Quote

 

A five-judge appellate panel in New York State Supreme Court questioned all sides with skepticism in the long-running television dispute between the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles.

The teams and Major League Baseball argued for about 40 minutes Friday before an Appellate Division panel headed by Justice Rolando T. Acosta, the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League pitcher of the year for Columbia in 1977 and 1979.

* * *

Washington and Major League Baseball want the arbitration decision reinstated or to have the case sent back to the sport’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee for a new hearing. The Orioles want an alternative arbitration.

“You want to go right back into the same dirty swimming pool?” Justice Richard T. Andrias asked Stephen Neuwirth, who represented the Nationals.

Acosta questioned whether there was a lack of “fundamental fairness” in the RSDC. Others on the panel questioned whether the court had to authority to order a different process and whether conflicts of interest were inevitable in the process both teams agreed to.

Paul Clement, representing MLB, said Proskauer’s representation was “at most an appearance issue,” and said the Nationals have offered to have different representation if there is another hearing before the RSDC.

 

 

 

A couple of notes.    First, it's interesting that the chief judge of the panel is a former star collegiate pitcher.     I'm sure that's purely a coincidence and of no real importance, but it's interesting anyway.

 

Second, as high-powered as the legal teams were in the earlier round, they've stepped it up for the appeal.   Both Carter Phillips, who argued for the Orioles, and Paul Clement, who argued for MLB, are very well-known appellate specialists who have argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court -- over 80 apiece.    Clement was the Solicitor General of the United States under George W. Bush, responsible for the office that argues Supreme Court cases on behalf of the U.S. Government.   Phillips was an assistant Solicitor General in the Reagan administration.

 

My guess is it will be 2-3 months before the Appellate Division renders it's decision.     As a reminder, a further appeal to the New York Court of Appeal is likely, a process that typically takes 12-15 months.    So, we are by no means close to the end of this saga.     Meanwhile, we are now in the first year of the second re-set period, so whatever happens here only applies to 2012-16 and a whole new negotiation is supposed to have taken place by now.    Crazy.

[weams]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Here's another take on the hearing:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/orioles-nationals-met-with-skepticism-by-ny-appellate-court/2017/0

A couple of notes.    First, it's interesting that the chief judge of the panel is a former star collegiate pitcher.     I'm sure that's purely a coincidence and of no real importance, but it's interesting anyway.

 

Second, as high-powered as the legal teams were in the earlier round, they've stepped it up for the appeal.   Both Carter Phillips, who argued for the Orioles, and Paul Clement, who argued for MLB, are very well-known appellate specialists who have argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court -- over 80 apiece.    Clement was the Solicitor General of the United States under George W. Bush, responsible for the office that argues Supreme Court cases on behalf of the U.S. Government.   Phillips was an assistant Solicitor General in the Reagan administration.

 

My guess is it will be 2-3 months before the Appellate Division renders it's decision.     As a reminder, a further appeal to the New York Court of Appeal is likely, a process that typically takes 12-15 months.    So, we are by no means close to the end of this saga.     Meanwhile, we are now in the first year of the second re-set period, so whatever happens here only applies to 2012-16 and a whole new negotiation is supposed to have taken place by now.    Crazy.

I truly appreciate your insight into the "players" and the procedures. I will say, based on what you've told us all along, the underdog here is sure putting up one heck of a fight. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, weams said:

I truly appreciate your insight into the "players" and the procedures. I will say, based on what you've told us all along, the underdog here is sure putting up one heck of a fight. 

I'll be honest, MASN/the Orioles have done way better throughout the proceeding than I ever thought they would, plus it has taken forever, even by usual litigation standards.    

BTW, I think the three MASN threads you bumped should be merged.    It's nice to find all the stuff about this case in one place.  

[weams]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I'll be honest, MASN/the Orioles have done way better throughout the proceeding than I ever thought they would, plus it has taken forever, even by usual litigation standards.    

BTW, I think the three MASN threads you bumped should be merged.    It's nice to find all the stuff about this case in one place.  

Done