NFL Says Saints Fans Don’t Have Valid Claim Over Playoff Loss

The NFL told a Louisiana federal court that Saints fans can’t file a class action lawsuit over an allegedly bad call made by a referee that they say lost the Saints a playoff game.

Saints fans claim a decision made by a referee during a Jan. 20 playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams was incorrect and cost the Saints a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

However, the NFL has fired back saying that fans can’t sue over this kind of occurrence. The NFL made this statement to a Louisiana federal court this week, urging the Eastern District to reject the fans’ class action claims.

The NFL asked the court to reject the fans’ request to take the football case back to state court from federal court where it had been removed. The NFL also asked the court to determine that there is precedent establishing that this kind of claim over the outcome of a game is not a valid reason to file a lawsuit.

Last week, plaintiffs Tommy Badeaux and Candis Lambert filed the NFL class action lawsuit in Louisiana state court asking the court to force the NFL to reverse the outcome of a game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams.

According to Badeaux and Lambert, they were filing the action on behalf of themselves and all other ticket holders to the game, and claimed that a referee should have called a penalty on the Rams, and that the referee’s failure to do so cost the Saints the game and as a result, prevented them from going to the Super Bowl.

The case has been removed to federal court, but Badeaux and Lambert argue that the NFL lawsuit should be sent back to state court because they are not seeking monetary damages over the issue.

Allegedly, the fact that they are not seeking financial damages should mean that the Saints and Rams case does not qualify to go to federal court.

However, the NFL disagreed with this argument, saying that the ticket holders are claiming that they suffered a monetary loss in the cost of their tickets, so the issue should stay in federal court.

Additionally, the NFL argues that because the ticket holders are filling the claim “on behalf of” other Saints fans, their NFL suit qualifies as a class action lawsuit and therefore belongs in federal court.

The NFL wrote that Badeaux and Lambert “must live with the language in their sworn verifications that included in their petition is the remedy for ‘class action damages.’”

The NFL also argued that the ticket holders cannot go to court over such an issue, saying that only the NFL commissioner has the authority to reschedule or replay a part of a game, not the ticket holders.

Allegedly this discretion is one “that fans and ticket holders do not have standing to pierce, and it is a discretion that no court can compel the exercise of.”

The Saints fans are represented by Frank J. D’Amico Jr. of The Law Offices of Frank D’Amico Jr. APLC, David S. Scalia and James R. Dugan of The Dugan Law Firm, James M. Williams of Chehardy Sherman & Williams, Roderick “Rico” Alvendia, J. Bart Kelly III and Jeanne K. Demarest of Law Office of Alvendia Kelly & Demarest, and Anthony D. Irpino of Irpino Avin & Hawkins.

The Rams and Saints Playoff Class Action Lawsuit is Badeaux v. Goodell, et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-00566, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.