CAA Sports fired Dogra in November '14 for cause, something he challenged in a private arbitrationJEREMY DEWEESE
The public airing of the bitter legal dispute between CAA Sports and Ben Dogra is over for now, as St. Louis federal judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. on Thursday dismissed the case. He also dismissed the counterclaims Dogra, who had been CAA Football co-Head, had filed against the agency. CAA Sports fired Dogra in November '14 for cause, something he challenged in a private arbitration as mandated under his employment agreement. An arbitrator issued his first award in '16 finding Dogra was fired "without cause," but dismissed the agent's other claims. There since have been audits over the amounts owed to Dogra and CAA Sports and three additional arbitrations. CAA Sports sued in federal court in November to overturn the fourth supplemental arbitration award. "The case at hand is a tangled mess" Limbaugh wrote in an eight-page decision. "There remains a dispute about what Dogra and/or CAA is owed pursuant to the original award. Confusing and time consuming as those computational issues may be, it is not for this Court to decide them."
DIGGING INTO THE DETAILS: The fourth supplemental award CAA Sports sought to vacate involved post-award, pre-judgment interest on a previous award. CAA Sports filed the case under seal, but Dogra filed his response and counterclaims into the public record, attaching the original awards into the court file. This made public what had previously been a secret. Dogra's counterclaims asked for the court to confirm all four awards, to make a declaration that the awards are "not confidential" and to award post-award, prejudgment interest that Dogra claims is in excess of $2M. Limbaugh in December denied CAA Sports' motion to seal documents in the case and ordered the clerk to unseal documents the agency had filed, though he did not rule on Dogra's other motions. John Comerford, Dogra's attorney, said he was pleased with the ruling. "Mr. Dogra was happy to continue working with the arbitrator to finalize the amounts that are due to Mr. Dogra," Comerford said. "We didn’t start this fight in federal court." CAA Sports had no comment. Both sides may re-file claims in federal court when the arbitration is concluded, as the case was dismissed without prejudice.
