Federal judge in Minnesota kicks 'Deflategate' case back to NYC counterpart
Image from Shutterstock.
Competing lawsuits by the National Football League and Tom Brady and the NFL Player’s Association over “Deflategate” penalties will be decided by a federal court in Manhattan.
The NFL beat Brady and the player’s union to the courthouse, filing a declaratory judgment action in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday, moments after it was announced that Commissioner Roger Goodell had upheld the four-game suspension imposed on the New England Patriots star. Brady’s team filed its petition to vacate the suspension in federal court in Minneapolis the next day.
However, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle ordered the case transferred from his court to his Manhattan counterpart on Thursday, saying that the Big Apple simply is the more appropriate forum, reports Courthouse News.
“Indeed, the court sees little reason for this action to have been commenced in Minnesota at all,” the judge wrote. “Brady plays for a team in Massachusetts; the union is headquartered in Washington, D.C.; the NFL is headquartered in New York; the arbitration proceedings took place in New York; and the award was issued in New York. In the undersigned’s view, therefore, it makes eminent sense the NFL would have commenced its action seeking confirmation of the award in the Southern District of New York. Why the instant action was filed here, however, is far less clear.”
The Associated Press, Slate and USA Today also have stories.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Paul Weiss leads ‘Deflategate’ probe for NFL”
Boston.com: “Judge to Brady, NFL: Stop the war of words”
Washington Post (reg. req.): “Condensing six months of the Deflategate-Tom Brady-NFL circus into five essential questions and 25 links”
