Brotherson v. Professional Basketball Club, L.L.C.

262 F.R.D. 564, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97921, 2009 WL 3286112
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Brotherson v. Professional Basketball Club, L.L.C.. Read the opinion of the Court — 604 F. Supp. 2d 1276
District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided July 1, 2009·No. No. C07-1787RAJ·Published

Opinion

ORDER

RICHARD A. JONES, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter comes before the court on a motion (Dkt.# 150) for reconsideration of a portion of the court’s February 23, 2009 order (Dkt.# 148) on several summary judgment motions, and the resolution of a motion calendar created in that order to determine if this case should be certified as a class action. For the reasons stated herein, the court DENIES the motion for reconsideration and certifies a Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3) class. The court directs the clerk to terminate the motion calendar. This order concludes with instructions and deadlines regarding notice to class members and management of this action.

II. BACKGROUND

In the February 23 order, the court substantially narrowed this action in resolving several summary judgment motions. The court declines to repeat much of the February 23 order, but briefly summarizes the status of this action.

In the buildup to the departure of the Seattle Supersonics (the “Sonics”) to become the Oklahoma City Thunder, Plaintiffs Robert Brotherson, Carolyn Bechtel, and Patrick Sheehy sued The Professional Basketball Club, L.L.C. (“PBC”), who own the Sonics. In the February 23 order, the court dismissed Plaintiffs’ Washington Consumer Protection Act claim and any claim for equitable relief. Only one claim survived: Plaintiffs’ claim for breach of what the court has called the “Emerald Club Contract.” The Contract, which PBC offered to virtually all Son-ics 2007 season ticket holders, let them renew their tickets for the 2008 season at 2007 season prices, and, critically for purposes of this action, gave them the option to renew at the same price for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Plaintiffs are Emerald Club members.

The court held that Plaintiffs had established all facts necessary to prevail on their breach of contract claim, with a few exceptions. The evidence did not permit the court to conclude, as a matter of law, whether Plaintiffs had waived or forfeited their renewal option for the 2009 season, and thereby lost their right to renew in 2010. Feb. 23 Ord. at 19. In particular, the evidence did not establish as a matter of law what PBC’s and ticket holders’ obligations were with respect to the renewal option. Id. at 19-21. Was PBC obligated to contact Emerald Club members and instruct them on how to exercise the renewal option at the end of the 2008 season, as it had done when it offered the Emerald Club Contract a year earlier? Were ticket holders obligated to take additional actions in pursuit of their right to renew? In light of these unresolved issues, the court held that “a jury must decide whether Plaintiffs acted appropriately to exercise their options for the 2009 season, or whether PBC’s failure to make renewal available excuses Plaintiffs failure to insist more vehemently that PBC honor its commitment.” Id. at 21 (reserving, in addition, the question of whether the court should exercise its equitable power to excuse any ticket holder’s delay in exercising the option). The court also reserved the question of damages for the jury. Id. at 21-22.

The court also stated that it was “preliminarily inclined” to certify a class consisting of all persons who entered the Emerald Club Contract. Id. at 29. It held that the proposed class met the four prerequisites of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a). Id. at 29-30. It re[567]*567quested additional briefing, however, to address whether the proposed class satisfied the additional requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3).

The court has now received the supplemental briefing, along with a motion from Plaintiffs to reconsider a portion of the February 23 order.

III. ANALYSIS

A. The Court Denies Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration.

The court begins with Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration, which asks the court to rule that Plaintiffs did not waive or forfeit their renewal options as a matter of law. The court ruled on February 23 that a jury must decide that question. Motions for reconsideration are “disfayored,” and the court will deny them unless they show “manifest error in the prior ruling” or a “showing of new facts or authority [that] could not have been brought to [the court’s] attention earlier with reasonable diligence.” Local Rules W.D. Wash. CR 7(h)(1).

Plaintiffs focus on the latter prong of the reconsideration standard, offering new evidence about the parties’ actions with respect to exercising the renewal option for the 2009 season. They contend that this evidence shows that, as a matter of law, they did not waive or forfeit their renewal option. They point out that in August 2008, they moved to amend their complaint to assert an injunctive relief claim requiring, among other things, that PBC extend Plaintiffs the right to purchase 2009 Thunder season tickets in accordance with the Emerald Club Contract. PBC’s counsel was quoted later the same month in a Seattle newspaper deriding Plaintiffs’ request for tickets in Oklahoma City. In a September 2008 interrogatory response, PBC indicated that it would not honor the renewal option. Myers Deck (Dkt.# 151), Ex. B. Finally, Plaintiffs offer evidence that at least some 2008 Sonics season ticket holders contacted PBC before the 2009 season to request information on renewal. PBC representatives sent them e-mails stating that decisions on renewal were on hold until the conclusion of the then-active litigation over whether PBC could break its lease at Seattle’s Key Arena.1

None of this evidence warrants a different outcome on summary judgment. Although the evidence Plaintiffs highlight may be relevant to claims over the Emerald Club renewal option, it does not establish that either Plaintiffs or all putative class members acted to request renewal. Plaintiffs’ own statements about their desire to exercise the renewal option for the 2009 season have been equivocal. Both in pleadings in this action and in their depositions, all three of them have expressed an unwillingness to renew their tickets for a team playing in Oklahoma City. E.g., Tondini Deck (Dkt.# 156), Ex. 4 (Brotherson Depo. at 28-29) (testifying in May 2008 that he would not renew tickets for a team that would be leaving Seattle in two years), Ex. 5 (Bechtel Depo. at 31) (testifying that she would not have bought 2008 season tickets if she had known the team would move), Ex. 6 (Sheehy Depo. at 86) (expressing uncertainty in September 2008 about whether he would renew). On the other hand, they correctly point out that they have indicated in amendments to their complaint and in discovery that they wish to reap the potential benefits of exercising the option. The court cannot resolve this contradictory evidence on summary judgment. When PBC’s counsel derided Plaintiffs’ claim for renewal in August 2008, he did so in the context of responding to their claim for an injunction that would have required PBC to fly them to Oklahoma City and provide lodging for every Thunder game. Plaintiffs later withdrew those claims, in response to a court order querying whether they “seriously in[568]

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Brotherson v. Professional Basketball Club, L.L.C., 262 F.R.D. 564, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97921, 2009 WL 3286112 (W.D. Wash. 2009).

262 F.R.D. 564 (Brotherson v. Professional Basketball Club, L.L.C.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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