NFL gets a win in the Sunday Ticket package

[MightyGiants]

https://x.com/AndrewBrandt/status/1819343835916341572

https://x.com/AndrewBrandt/status/1819344678078001568

[DaveBrown74]

From what I have gathered, this outcome was not unexpected.

[nb587]

Did the judge throw out the verdict?  Or, dis the judge throw out the $ amount?  Or both?

[H-Town G-Fan]

Did the judge throw out the verdict?  Or, dis the judge throw out the $ amount?  Or both?

After reviewing the order, while reporting is focusing on him "throwing out the verdict," it's a little more complex than that procedurally.

Judge excluded the plaintiffs' damages experts after trial based on their live testimony. The Judge found that the experts failed to establish a reliable methodology. While its unusual to have experts excluded ex post (usually they are excluded prior to trial, if at all), its not unheard of. Because these experts were the basis for the evidence establishing the plaintiffs' damages, now that that evidence effectively never happened because those opinons were excluded, he found that there was no evidence to support damages.

But, he also said that even if that hadn't happened, he would have ignored the verdict, because the jury found a damages number that was non-sensical under the circumstances. They were presented with two theories of how to evaluate damages, and it appears they mixed-and-matched... which doesn't really work. While this is his "alternative" basis for why the verdict would not be entered and not the primary reason he effectively tossed out the verdict, he's giving another basis why the appellate court can uphold his judgment as a matter of law should they find that his exclusion of experts was inappropriate.

At the end of the day, the Judge didn't "throw out" the portion of the verdict which found the NFL liable, he granted judgment as a matter of law because there was no evidence of damages... Which basically ends up with the plaintiffs' "winning" on liability (because that portion of the verdict had evidentiary support--the judge even notes the issues with damages doesn't affect the jury's other findings), but losing because they failed to establish damages.