CAA Sports yesterday in a court filing revealed it sued Ben Dogra, its former co-Head of Football, because the arbitrator in the case exceeded his authority to award by awarding post-award, pre-judgment interest. The case, in federal court in St. Louis, has been full of revelations about a private arbitration between the agency and the agent and the circumstances of his November '14 firing, as well as the private arbitration that ensued. Dogra filed the original arbitration award, and other documents, attached to his answer and counterclaim against the agency. CAA Sports originally filed, under seal, a complaint to vacate the fourth supplemental opinion and award, which deals with post award, pre-judgement interest on an amount of $12.5M, of which all or a portion of it, has already been paid. The amount in dispute in the court case is interest on that $12.5M, which Dogra claims in court filings is more than $2.3M. CAA Sports said in an unsealed filing that the arbitrator erred by awarding the interest in the first place. CAA Sports argued in its court papers that post-award pre-judgment interest is a matter for courts, not arbitrators, to decide and has asked the judge to vacate the award. "Dogra has failed to produce any authority to contest the fact that only courts can award post-award pre-judgment interest," CAA Sports said in the filing. An attorney for Dogra did not immediately return a request for comment last night.
