NFL Launches First Challenge to Landmark Sunday Ticket Verdict

In the wake of the stunning $4.7 billion dollar verdict, the NFL’s legal team has broken its huddle to run its first attempt to displace that verdict. The NFL’s initial challenge takes aim at, among other issues, the jury’s methodology for determining damages.

As is often the case in complex class actions, determining the appropriate damage calculation was a hotly contested issue. The plaintiff subscribers introduced testimony from two damage experts – one supported a figure of $3.48 billion damage figure, the other $7.01 billion. In its brief, the NFL referenced court transcripts showing presiding Judge Gutierrez seemingly expressing doubts about the viability of either calculation, and “regret[]” about not granting the NFL’s Daubert motions. Apparently, the jury had similar doubts about the expert calculations because it disregarded both methods and created its own formula that produced the verdict entered in June. The NFL noted several potential errors in the jury’s methodology, again harkening back to concerns Judge Gutierrez had expressed about the calculation of damages.

Calculating damages in cases involving abstract and/or generalized harms incurred by a large class of claimants will almost always be a major point of contention. Defendants will often take the position that the calculations are the product of, essentially, guesswork by an expert engaged for the purpose of calculating the highest damage total possible. Claimants will usually respond that calculating damages on such a large scale necessarily requires an expert to proffer a damage estimate calculated via a reasonable methodology that passes the Daubert standard. And any uncertainty created by the abstract nature of the harm should not act as a get-out-of-jail free card for defendants who violate the law and harm a large group of individuals.

We will continue to monitor this case and its impact on damage issues in complex class actions.