Attorneys for the Dodgers and MLB squabbled for more than an hour this morning during a session serving as a prelude to a key evidentiary hearing beginning Oct. 31 in the club's ongoing bankruptcy case. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on several occasions chided both sides to not create any delays in documentary discovery in advance of the hearing, which could determine whether or not team Owner Frank McCourt keeps the team.
Both MLB and the Dodgers scored minor wins in the 75-minute hearing today, which was designed to lay out rules for the evidentiary hearing, particularly with regard to discovery, and served as a small taste of the animosity likely to dominate those upcoming proceedings. The league says that important documents belonging to MLB-appointed club monitor Tom Schieffer and relative to the case are locked up at Dodger Stadium, and that the team has precluded MLB from accessing them.
The Dodgers argued they should be able to access and copy all of those Schieffer documents before turning them over. The Dodgers kicked Schieffer out of the stadium after its filing for Chapter 11 protection in June, and argue MLB Commisioner Bud Selig's appointment of Schieffer violated league rules. But Gross ruled today the documents are the property of MLB, and will be subject to regular discovery rules. Gross also previously ruled in favor of MLB by not allowing Dodgers access to information regarding the other 29 clubs.
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The Dodgers, meanwhile, prevailed in their desire to not submit right now as part of the discovery a proposed template of a cable TV rights agreement that would represent the outcome of its desired rights sale. That rights sale, in turn, is the centerpiece of the club's bankruptcy reorganization strategy.
MLB argued a delay by the Dodgers in producing the template was a sign that the club's desire to sell the TV rights, and in the process nullify a current deal with Fox Sports West, was improper. That line of argument follows repeated and strenuous objections both Fox and MLB have levied to the Dodgers' TV rights proposal. But Gross said it would be "highly restrictive" to turn over a rights sale template right now.
