Jason Garrett may want to take lessons from the Cowboys’ lawyers about going on the offensive.
Previously dismissed from the lawsuit filed by customers who showed up for Super Bowl XLV with tickets but who weren’t actually able to use them, the Cowboys now want nearly $200,000 from those who have sued, for complying with subpoeanas issued to the team last September.
According to the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys seek $196,584.44 for reviewing more than 23 gigabytes of data and producing more than 85,000 pages of documents.
Judges have broad discretion to order reimbursement for compliance with subpoenas. The charges typically arise from making copies. But since no one seems to make copies any more, the Cowboys apparently want to be paid for the efforts of those who reviewed and digitally transferred the documents.
It’s likely no coincidence that the request comes after a judge denied class-action status to the lawsuit. As a class action, it would have been much easier for the lawyers representing the plaintiffs to include the Cowboys’ invoice in the settlement demands from the NFL. Now that it’s every plaintiff for him or her self, it’ll be much harder to find a way to stick the NFL with the $196,584.44 bill.
The Dallas Morning News also points out that the deadline for appealing the denial of class-action status comes on Tuesday, and that the NFL has begun the process of attacking specific plaintiffs’ claims, in the hopes of winning the cases (or at least limiting liability) on customer at a time.
Lost in all of this is that people showed up for the Super Bowl with tickets and weren’t able to watch the game. While the plaintiffs shouldn’t be able to overreach in their efforts to be fairly compensated for the snafu, the fact remains that the premier sporting event in America suffered a complete failure on one of the most simple and linear propositions in all of business -- buy a ticket for admission, gain admission.