The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen Association has taken a big stride in its extended court battle with America’s biggest leagues.
This week a panel of three judges from the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in its favour. On a 2-1 vote, they overturning a previous Court ruling blocking the NJTHA from claiming damages from the leagues.
NJTHA which operates out of Monmouth Park Race Course had claimed separate amounts of $3.4m and $150m in May last year. This after the PASPA law forbidding sports betting had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
$3.4m was for a bond posted as security during their legal duel with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA. These are the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and National Collegiate Athletics Association.
$150m was for the losses they claimed they incurred because of the Leagues’ stance against sports betting.
In 2014, the four professional leagues together with National Collegiate AA formed a partnership. The group then filed a suit to block the New Jersey legislature’s proposed launch of sports betting.
Leagues said NJ violated Federal law
The leagues sought an injunction against the state, saying New Jersey was violating federal law. They cited the decades-old Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
However, after a four-year battle, the US Supreme Court eventually threw out PASPA on May 14 last year. Immediately the NJTHA renewed its efforts to claim damages from the leagues and went back to court.
In oral arguments filed with the Third Circuit in July of this year, the NJTHA said it could be owed as much as $150m in damages.
In this case, however, the Third Circuit’s ruling in favour of the NJTHA is in reference only to the $3.4m bond they posted as security in the event they lost the case.
NJTHA said the leagues’ use of a law found to be unconstitutional almost put Monmouth Park, out of business.
Judges Rendell and McKee ruled for the state
In the latest ruling, US Circuit Judges Marjorie Rendell and Theodore McKee ruled in favour of the NJTHA, while Judge David Porter disagreed.
“PASPA provided the only basis for enjoining NJTHA from conducting sports gambling, and the Supreme Court ultimately held that law is unconstitutional,” Judge Rendell said.
“Therefore, NJTHA had a right to conduct sports gambling all along.
“We conclude that NJTHA was wrongfully enjoined and should be able to call on the bond.”
In his response, Judge Porter disagreed that the Supreme Court’s decision necessarily meant that the NJTHA was wrongfully enjoined.
This holding, he said, “required indulging the fiction” that “PASPA never existed at all.”
