New York state Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Marks yesterday ruled in favor of the Orioles-controlled MASN in its case against MLB and the Nationals, vacating a league arbitration award in favor of the Nationals in their ongoing media rights dispute. Marks’ ruling, arriving more than five months after oral arguments in N.Y. and representing a major win for MASN, found that law firm Proskauer Rose simultaneously representing MLB, the Nationals and members of the league’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee created a troubling conflict that "objectively demonstrates an utter lack of concern for fairness.” Marks wrote in his 29-page decision, “Had MLB, the arbitrators, the Nationals and/or Proskauer taken some reasonable step to address (the Orioles’) concerns about the Nationals’ choice of counsel in the arbitration -- or indeed any step at all -- the court might well have been compelled to uphold the arbitral award. But MASN and the Orioles have established that their well-documented concerns fell on entirely deaf ears.” It is rare for a court to overturn a private arbitration ruling. Marks has left it up to the parties themselves to determine next steps in the long-running dispute. “If the current conflict remains, the parties might meet and confer regarding whether they can agree to a different neutral dispute resolution process,” he said. Orioles counsel Arnold Weiner in a statement said, “As we argued, Major League Baseball’s arbitration over the rights fees lacked the fundamental fairness that the Orioles had a right to deserve. We are hopeful that this fairness will be achieved in a future and independent process.” MLB in a statement said, "We are reviewing the decision and have no further comment at this time."
NATS CONSIDERING AN APPEAL: The Nationals said they are considering an appeal of Marks’ ruling, and that they were particularly heartened that several of MASN’s other arguments in the case beyond the Proskauer Rose issue were not found by Marks to be overwhelming. “In all other respects, the Court rejected MASN’s and the Orioles’ arguments for vacating the award,” said Stephen Neuwirth, Nationals attorney. The decision for MASN maintains a current payment schedule to the Nationals for their rights of about $40M annually. The MLB arbitration award, had it been upheld, would have given the club an average of about $60M per year over a five-year period. The dispute stems from an ’05 settlement agreement between MLB and Orioles Owner Peter Angelos that created MASN. The deal included provisions for the Nationals to seek higher rights fees at five-year intervals, and appeal to the league should it fail to negotiate terms with MASN. The Orioles have argued since last year that the agreed-upon appeal process was compromised on multiple fronts.
