Of course, fining an NFL owner $5,000 would be like you or me being fined thee fiddy....
Apologies if posted earlier...
Sam McDowell- KC Star
Wed, October 13, 2021
A St. Louis judge fined Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt and other NFL owners Wednesday and set a hearing for potential contempt of court for failing to disclose a fuller picture of their financial records as the judge previously requested.
That request came last month as part of discovery for a long-running lawsuit that alleges the NFL bypassed league relocation rules when the Rams left St. Louis.
Judge Christopher McGraugh levied Hunt a $5,000 fine — and also fined Dallas owner Jerry Jones $6,000, New England owner Robert Kraft $5,000 and New York Giants owner John Mara $8,000 — during a hearing Wednesday, in which he accused each of delaying in providing financial statements to gauge their net worth.
“It does seem to me that your clients ... are dragging their feet on this,” McGraugh told a lawyer for the owners, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which attended the hearing and has been covering the lawsuit since its 2017 origin. “It seems like we’re in a three-card monte game.”
A month earlier, the judge warned the fines would arrive if fuller financial records did not. He made good on that promise Wednesday and set a hearing for Dec. 3 for why the four owners “should not be held in contempt of court,” according to his order. He also made them responsible for jointly paying $25,000 of attorney fees.
Hunt and the other three were part of a committee that helped explore the possibility of returning the Rams franchise to Los Angeles.
McGraugh also ordered Rams owner Stan Kroenke to fork over records, but the plaintiffs said he eventually obliged after initially trying to avoid disclosing them.
The lawsuit alleges that the the Rams’ move from St. Louis to Los Angeles cost the city millions of dollars in revenue.
As noted by the Post-Dispatch, Missouri’s state law permits the admission of civil defendants’ financial records in order to help juries assess potential punitive damages.
Kinda funny that Clark was part of the "exploratory" committee that looked into getting a regional competitor of his shipped off to California. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
What does the owners of these teams net worth have to do with moving a team to another city as part of an NFL committee?
I think it is questionable to name all the other individual teams and owners. It is a silly lawsuit in that regard.
I think Judge expects the Plaintiff's lawyers not to leak the information if turned over and thinks parties should produce the information in discovery if ordered.
Judge will probably split the trial to determine liability before allowing evidence on damages.
I think even a St. Louis jury will think it is wacky for parties that enticed the Rams to leave LA have much right to beef about the team going back to LA.
There is no real contract that says teams can not get approval to relocate.
I doubt the financials of 31 teams and their owners will ever be evidence at a trial if liability is determined before evidence on damages. But judges expect parties and their lawyers to follow orders and produce information and judges also expect the Plaintiffs' lawyers to guard the information. [Reply]
Turn over your financials or appeal it. If you've lost the appeal, file a MX for extension of time or something.
Don't just do nothing and then complain during your contempt hearing. You're gonna be complaining to the guy who told you to do it in the first place - how exactly do you think that's going to go?
Not the best approach, Clark...
The real funny part is the $5k fine. Shit, I've seen steeper fines than that for actively manipulating evidence on $100K cases before. I've had show-cause orders hit my desk because my secretary forgot to calendar a status hearing.
Clark's getting off light here. Dude - don't blow off the judge in billion dollar proceeding. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jettio:
I think it is questionable to name all the other individual teams and owners. It is a silly lawsuit in that regard.
I think Judge expects the Plaintiff's lawyers not to leak the information if turned over and thinks parties should produce the information in discovery if ordered.
Judge will probably split the trial to determine liability before allowing evidence on damages.
I think even a St. Louis jury will think it is wacky for parties that enticed the Rams to leave LA have much right to beef about the team going back to LA.
There is no real contract that says teams can not get approval to relocate.
I doubt the financials of 31 teams and their owners will ever be evidence at a trial if liability is determined before evidence on damages. But judges expect parties and their lawyers to follow orders and produce information and judges also expect the Plaintiffs' lawyers to guard the information.
That's the damndest thing about all this.
Kroenke didn't need to create this mess. He could've easily gotten approval to move without scorching the earth and engaging in potentially unfair dealing.
As you said - teams have moved before. It can be done on the up and up. I don't understand why Kroenke was compelled to poke the bear on his way out the door.
Bottom line is that Kroenke is kind of a known prick and cutthroat business partner. A pretty classic 'lay down with dogs and you'll get fleas' situation with St. Louis and Kroenke to begin with. And because he just can't help but be a prick (and presumably believes himself to rich to be punished for it), he got slapped.
There's at least a little karmic justice here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
That's the damndest thing about all this.
Kroenke didn't need to create this mess. He could've easily gotten approval to move without scorching the earth and engaging in potentially unfair dealing.
As you said - teams have moved before. It can be done on the up and up. I don't understand why Kroenke was compelled to poke the bear on his way out the door.
Bottom line is that Kroenke is kind of a known prick and cutthroat business partner. A pretty classic 'lay down with dogs and you'll get fleas' situation with St. Louis and Kroenke to begin with. And because he just can't help but be a prick (and presumably believes himself to rich to be punished for it), he got slapped.
There's at least a little karmic justice here.
So did Kroenke have any money before marrying Sam Walton's daughter?
Pretty amazing how he has all these sports franchises and he got it all by saving up his allowance like a kid who wants a bicycle.
To be fair, after looking at his wikipedia bio, he married in 1974 and did a lot of real estate business in the 1980's and 1990's before he started buying teams, so seems to have made some money through his own work. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jettio:
So did Kroenke have any money before marrying Sam Walton's daughter?
Pretty amazing how he has all these sports franchises and he got it all by saving up his allowance like a kid who wants a bicycle.
To be fair, after looking at his wikipedia bio, he married in 1974 and did a lot of real estate business in the 1980's and 1990's before he started buying teams, so seems to have made some money through his own work.
Yeah - he's made a fair amount of money of his own by rat-fucking various business partners in land-deals over the last 40 years.
He's a truly awful human being. I think he's probably a good business man, but he's a piece of shit. [Reply]