Nevada court consolidates class action suit
Earlier this month the transfer of the class action lawsuit to Nevada was granted . Now the court has ruled that the five cases will be tried as one.
In December Jon Fitch, Cung Le, and Nate Quarry were named as plaintiffs in a class-action suit against the UFC, alleging that the promotion held a monopoly position in the sport. Further suits were filed with different plaintiffs, but all were filed in Northern California, where juries and judges are more sympathetic toward class action suits than, say, Nevada, which has a pro business reputation.
In January, ZUFFA filed for a change of venue from Northern District of California in San Jose to Nevada. Earlier this month the transfer to Nevada was granted. Now the court has ruled that the cases will be consolidated into one.
Jason Cruz has the story, for MMAPayout.
On June 11th, Judge Richard Boulware of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada signed an order which would consolidate all of the cases in the Zuffa Antitrust Lawsuit.
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court in Northern California determined that the venue of the lawsuit filed by Cung Le and several other former-UFC fighters should be transferred to Zuffa’s home district of Las Vegas, Nevada. As a result, the five lawsuits filed by the former fighters were sent to federal court in Las Vegas. However, the cases had not been consolidated by one judge which resulted in the initial set up of having multiple judges handling several cases.
Judge Boulware, who was assigned the Le case, indicated in his June 11th order that the presiding District Judges determined that the actions are related and there is good cause to consolidate them under the same District Court Judge and Magistrate Judge. The order stated that neither party opposed the consolidation.
Cruz also noted that, while it should not matter, Senator Harry Reid, a huge supporter of the UFC, proposed Judge Boulware to the bench to the White House.