Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke may want to consider changing his legal representation, or at least his legal strategy.
There is a quartet of lawsuits which have been filed against Kroenke and/or his franchise by St. Louis residents. Three of the four involve the plaintiffs’ personal seat licenses purchased when the Rams were playing home games in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, though the relief sought in each case is somewhat different.
Los Angeles Rams Legal Defense off to Bad Start
One suit, which has now advanced to federal court, alleges that the holders of these PSLs should be able to use their PSLs to purchase and/or sell Rams tickets through the 2025 season regardless of where the Rams are playing their home games.
There are two other suits making similar allegations at the state level. One seeks the right to purchase tickets at the Rams’ new venue in Los Angeles for a less defined period of time, while the other seeks refunds of the cost of the PSLs.
In response to all three of these suits, the Rams are seeking dismissal across the board. The Rams argue that the PSL agreements covered only games played in the Edward Jones Dome, and whether these suits advance to trial will largely depend on the interpretation of the language of the PSLs as applied by the state judges.
There is a fourth suit already in progress, however, and that’s where things aren’t going so well for Kroenke so far.
This suit has been brought by fans who allege that Kroenke violated the Merchandising Practices Act of Missouri by making claims that his organization wouldn’t be the active party in relocating from St. Louis while simultaneously taking actions to do exactly that. The state statute prohibits making false statements in connection with the sale of goods.
The suit has some legal merit. The Rams are a business which sells a product for profit. That product is football games and all that comes along with it. The burden of proof lies on the plaintiffs, however, forcing their representation to convince a state judge that Kroenke willingly misled fans about his desire to move the Rams out of St. Louis while selling them merchandise and tickets.
This is where Kroenke’s representation has gone wrong. Instead of forcing the plaintiffs to prove that not only did Kroenke knowingly deceive fans, but if not for Kroenke’s comments such fans wouldn’t have made the purchases they did, they went with a foolish attempt for a change of venue.
Legal precedent allows for a change of venue from a state level to a federal court if there is diversity of citizenship, or one party in the case lives in a different state than the other. This is to provide a higher chance of a fair trial. That could be especially vital in this case tried in the same city that the plaintiffs reside in and that Kroenke’s organization has just vacated.
Kroenke is arguing that he is a resident of the state of Wyoming and therefore entitled to move the trial to federal court on diversity of citizenship grounds. That has revealed a huge oversight by Kroenke’s representation that the plaintiffs have already pointed out. Kroenke’s voter registration is in Missouri, and the state that issued his license to operate a motor vehicle is also Missouri.
The court understandably denied Kroenke’s request for a change of venue, and the damage may be more serious than that. Starting the trial off with an argument based on such weak grounds sets the tone for the rest of the case in the plaintiffs’ favor, and it may now be too late for the Rams to exit these proceedings completely unscathed.
