UNION APPEALS $28.1 MILLION VERDICT

In a move that widely was expected, the NFL Players Association has appealed the $28.1 million verdict entered against it last year in a lawsuit filed by former players who claimed that the union failed to properly market their names and likenesses.
In federal court, the appeal process is initiated via the filing of a “notice of appeal,” a rare one-page document in an industry premised on the systematic destruction of trees.
Eventually, the parties will submit briefs and engage in oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
As we’ve previously pointed out, the most glaring problem with the verdict seems to be the fact that the $7 million award of compensatory damages was essentially pulled out of thin air by the jury. The plaintiffs did not introduce evidence of any actual losses suffered by them due to the actions of the union. Thus, there arguably is no basis in the record of evidence to support the number on which the jury arrived.
And if the award of compensatory damages falls, the $21 million punitive damages award also will fall, since punitive damages must be reasonably related to compensatory damages -- and any award of punitive damages that exceeds the compensatories by a ratio of more than 10-to-1 implicates due process problems under the U.S. Constitution.