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Marlins claim British Virgin Island citizenship


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In order to be excluded from the lawsuit that sues Loria for not sharing profits of the team sale with the city, the Marlins are claiming citizenship in the British Virgin Islands because one of their owners is based there. Media will call this sneaky I'm sure but it might actually be brilliant.

 

Lawyers representing the Marlins told a federal judge that at least one corporation that owns part of Marlins Teamco — the company Jeter and majority owner Bruce Sherman formed last year to buy the franchise — is based in the Caribbean. As a result, team lawyers argued, the dispute with Miami-Dade should be governed by jurisdictional rules that apply to international disputes.

 

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/04/10/marlins-claim-british-virgin-islands-citizenship-to-avoid-a-miami-court/

 

 

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this is just another move that you don't see ever from other pro teams.

 

I don't know about that. This is the legal paperwork mumbo jumbo that happens but just usually stays behind the scenes. The Marlins just let it out in the open and then get laughed at. I'm sure other teams try garbage like this often.

 

 

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Clown franchise. Brilliant or not, this is just another move that you don't see ever from other pro teams.

 

This stuff happens is business with regularity.  It's just usually behind the scenes.

 

I own a construction company, and we see a lot of similar things with owners/investors in commercial real estate, and the corporations tied to it.

 

 

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This stuff happens is business with regularity.  It's just usually behind the scenes.

 

I own a construction company, and we see a lot of similar things with owners/investors in commercial real estate, and the corporations tied to it.

 

Exactly. My point is that this isn't really the Marlins and Jeter coming up with this as some "same old Marlins" shenanigans... this is some slick lawyer trying to get his clients out of this case with a loophole, it's what lawyers do. I'm sure the Marlins aren't the only team or company to ever pull a stunt like this but since in this case it IS the Marlins, the media will jump all over this.

 

For whatever it's worth, the Herald says that it won't work because as long as at least one Marlins owner is a US citizen the organization can be considered a US citizen in the courtroom as well so this probably amounts to nothing. 

 

 

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Personally I don’t know what the current owned Marlins are worried about if Loria was the one who profited from the sale. What are they expecting to get from Jeter and Co?

 

There's some fine print that says if the Loria group doesn't pay the profits owed to the city/county then the new ownership group has to pay it. Something like that. It's stupid but the new ownership group can be on the hook for the costs.

 

I'll see if I can find where I read that. 

 

Edit: Found it. The county claims the Jeter group might have to pay it, Jeter says their sales agreement says otherwise...

 

Miami-Dade claims the Jeter group is ultimately responsible for paying the profit-sharing proceeds if Loria refused. Jeter’s camp has said the sales agreement makes the profit-sharing obligation a Loria responsibility, and Jeter himself told reporters the suit “has nothing to do with us.”

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article201586044.html

 

 

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There's some fine print that says if the Loria group can't pay the profits owed to the city/county then the new ownership group has to pay it. Something like that. It's stupid but the new ownership group can be on the hook for the costs.

 

I'll see if I can find where I read that. 

 

Makes sense. Hadn’t seen to much in that part.

 

 

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I don't understand legally how the Marlins could claim to be anything other than a U.S. citizen.  This is not like a scenario where a company does business in other jurisdictions and claims citizenship in one of them. The Marlins' business is to play baseball in the United States.  Their headquarters are unquestionably in Miami. 

 

 

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I don't understand legally how the Marlins could claim to be anything other than a U.S. citizen.  This is not like a scenario where a company does business in other jurisdictions and claims citizenship in one of them.

 

I think they literally are just trying this tactic to see if it works. Seems silly from our viewpoint, and it probably is, but as I said earlier, it's pretty much the lawyer's job to try things like this. If it works, it's brilliant, if it doesn't there's virtually no harm done. 

 

 

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I think they literally are just trying this tactic to see if it works. Seems silly from our viewpoint, and it probably is, but as I said earlier, it's pretty much the lawyer's job to try things like this. If it works, it's brilliant, if it doesn't there's virtually no harm done. 

 

ya this wont work.  even if they somehow claim that they are a british virgin islands company the city of miami would have personal jurisdiction from these events clearly arising out of miami.  They need to hire a different lawyer.

 

 

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I think they literally are just trying this tactic to see if it works. Seems silly from our viewpoint, and it probably is, but as I said earlier, it's pretty much the lawyer's job to try things like this. If it works, it's brilliant, if it doesn't there's virtually no harm done. 

 

I'm a lawyer and I don't agree with this.  This tactic is doing real harm to Jeter/the Marlins.  You may say they don't care, their approval ratings are already in the dumps, etc...But they have principled defenses to their baseball moves.  This looks like a Loria-esque attempt to take advantage of/screw with local government.

 

 

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