The National Football League (NFL) is showing a level of desperation in requesting a change of venue for an upcoming trial by appealing to the Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals after a trial judge already denied the motion, according to a local sports commentator.
“It seems they are coming to grips with the reality that there's a very good chance that they may lose this and they are desirous now of limiting the liability that would be inherent with losing the case,” said Randy Karraker, 101 ESPN Radio morning host.
St. Louis City Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh denied a change of venue last month in litigation that alleges the NFL failed to comply with relocation rules when the Rams left for Los Angeles. On Oct. 1, counsel for the NFL requested a permanent writ of prohibition that would order McGraugh to transfer the case to a county outside of the St. Louis metropolitan region.
“Wherever they go in the St. Louis Metro area in Missouri, they're going to wind up with a jury or at least a group of people or prospective jurors who are aware of what happened with the Rams and their departure from St. Louis,” Karraker told the St. Louis Record.
The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, the City of St. Louis, and the County of St. Louis sued the Los Angeles Rams and Rams owner Stan Kroenke in 2017 for leaving St. Louis city and county officials on the hook financially for a new stadium that was never built.
Last month, McGraugh rejected the NFL’s motion for summary judgment, allowing a January 2022 trial to proceed.
If the appellate court granted the motion to change venue, Karraker doesn’t foresee it benefitting the league very much.
“One advantage that they will have if they do get the change of venue is that the city of St. Louis is notorious for awarding huge sums in judgments while St. Louis County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and other counties that would be a possibility for a change of venue historically their juries don't award as much as St. Louis city juries do,” Karraker said.
St. Louis is among the top 10 cities categorized as a judicial hellhole based on the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA)’s annual evaluation of court systems. St. Louis scored number seven in the 2020 Judicial Hellhole ranking.
“If somehow, they could magically get this changed to Kansas City in Jackson County across the state, there would be much less knowledge but I don't see that scenario happening because from what I understand, legally, a change of venue that far away can't take place,” Karraker said. “That would be too much of an inconvenience for people that are involved with the case. My understanding is, according to Missouri law, that a change of venue would have to be to a neighboring county.”