Attorneys standing for the PGA Tour strategy to ask a government judge to think about pressing back the exploration target date and also arranged begin of an antitrust legal action entailing LIV Golf’s declares that the PGA Tour is utilizing syndicate powers to squash competitors and also has actually inhibited suppliers, media companions and also others from dealing with LIV Golf.
In a joint activity submitted to the UNITED STATE District Court for Northern California on Sunday, attorneys standing for the PGA Tour and also LIV Golf asked united state District Judge Beth Labson Freeman to timetable an instance monitoring meeting to go over postponing the existing trial date of January 2024 and also expanding the exploration timetable.
The PGA Tour’s lawyers created that “there are at least four reasons why these adjustments are necessary to avoid serious prejudice to the Tour’s ability to defend against LIV’s claims and prosecute its tortious interference counterclaims.”
Among them, according to the PGA Tour lawyers, are:
• Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and also the fund’s guv, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, “continue to resist compliance with the Tour’s subpoenas for documents and testimony, a dispute that remains unresolved and which will likely lead to an appeal.”
“PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan have taken extraordinary steps to avoid producing a single document or providing sworn testimony,” PGA Tour attorneys created. “To date, the TOUR has been unable to obtain any discovery from either PIF or Mr. Al-Rumayyan.”
• The PGA Tour is looking for to modify its counterclaim to include PIF and also Al-Rumayyan as offenders in its countersuit versus LIV Golf “because recently produced documents show that they played a central role in tortiously interfering with the Tour’s contracts.”
• The PGA Tour’s lawyers additionally said that “LIV, the current and former player plaintiffs, and several third parties have failed to produce key documents and, in some cases, have failed to produce documents at all.”
“[T]he nature of this case has significantly evolved since the Court set the current January 2024 trial date, from a case about individual golfers to a case about two competing golf leagues, substantially undermining Plaintiffs’ stated basis for an expedited case schedule,” PGA Tour lawyers created in the activity.
As points stand, the target date to full paper exploration is following month (March 30) and also the reality exploration cutoff is May 26.
“The current trial date and discovery schedule are untenable in view of these issues,” PGA Tour lawyers created. “Given the present status of discovery (or lack thereof) from PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan in particular, it is not realistic for the parties to meet the current deadlines. In fact, PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan have already signaled that they are unlikely to comply with any order from this Court compelling them to provide discovery, instead indicating that they will pursue their meritless defenses through lengthy appeals. Thus, it could take several months (or longer) before PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan even begin producing discovery or choose to face the consequences of their noncompliance.”
Several LIV Golf gamers, consisting of Phil Mickelson and also Bryson DeChambeau, submitted the government antitrust legal action versus the PGA Tour onAug 3. Mickelson and also others later on eliminated themselves as complainants; LIV Golf, DeChambeau, Matt Jones and also Peter Uihlein are the continuing to be complainants.
The PGA Tour additionally submitted a countersuit in which it affirmed that LIV Golf disrupted its agreements with gamers.
In the joint activity, LIV Golf’s lawyers opposed pressing back exploration and also trial days. The attorneys said that the existing trial timetable “remains not only workable, but critical to the careers of the Player Plaintiffs and the viability of LIV as a legitimate competitor to the Tour.”
“With the ink barely dry on the Tour’s last schedule extension request the Tour returns with another attempt to blow it up and move the trial date set by this Court,” LIV Golf’s lawyers created in the activity. “Its strategy was transparent from the start: put up every conceivable roadblock to timely resolution; pursue discovery that knows no bounds; and seek any means possible to postpone facing trial on Plaintiffs’ claims. All the while, the Tour continues to harm both LIV and the Player Plaintiffs. The Tour has made clear that its conduct will not abate until it is enjoined.”
LIV Golf’s attorneys said that the PGA Tour’s objective is clear: “It seeks to delay a merits adjudication as long as possible in the hopes that it can drive LIV out of the market and thereby avoid scrutiny of its illegal behavior.”
LIV Golf’s attorneys kept in mind that LIV Golf gamers stay under suspension by the PGA Tour, which lately set up a brand-new policy that expands two-year restrictions to non-tour participants that complete in LIV Golf events.
“Under the Tour’s new regulations, any non-member — such as a college or foreign player — who participates in a LIV event in 2023 will be banned from the PGA Tour until January 2026 at the earliest,” LIV Golf’s attorneys created. “And the Tour has now entered into unlawful parallel agreements with several other tours around the world to exclude LIV. The Tour is exploiting litigation delay to choke off air to LIV and players.”
