PATS HIT WITH CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT
A pair of lawyers in New Jersey have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court on behalf of all Jets season-ticketholders who paid for seats to watch the Patriots and at the Meadowlands during the eight-year Bill Belichick era.
The action arises from the finding earlier this month that the Pats were secretly videotaping the defensive signals sent from the Jets' assistant coaches to the players on the field.
Alleging that the cheating violated the federal RICO laws and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, the lawsuit seeks $184 million in damages. The number comes from the $61.8 million paid for tickets to the game, which is trebled under the theories alleged.
"How many times have the Patriots done this? We find it hard to believe they did it just once," attorney Carl Mayer said, according to the Associated Press. "We just want to get to the truth of the matter of what the Patriots did to the Jets. I think the ticket holders are genuinely concerned about it. This is a type of misrepresentation."
Cases of this nature -- which some might call aggressive and others might describe as frivolous -- hinge initially on the identification of one or more legal theories that, if the facts alleged are proven to be true, will support a claim for the relief sought. On that point, we plan to track down a copy of the complaint and give it a fair and objective analysis.
If the lawsuit can survive an initial challenge based on what's known in the profession as a "motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim" under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, then the question becomes whether the plaintiffs can prove the alleged facts.
And the problem for the Patriots is that the evidence of historical cheating was given to the NFL, which promptly destroyed it.
Um, that's a potential problem.
The suit also will expose Belichick and his current and former assistant coaches and all current and former employees of the football operations to depositions under oath.
That's a potential problem, too.
Stay tuned on this one. The primary battleground will be the motion to dismiss. Because once the pre-trial discovery process begins, things could turn very ugly, very quickly.
