2 days Ago
Last week, the judge presiding over the Sunday Ticket class action threatened to dismiss the case while venting at the plaintiffs’ lawyers regarding the way they’ve conducted the trial. Currently, the judge is holding off on ruling on the league’s motion for judgment as a matter of law until after the jury enters a verdict. Several of you have asked these questions, or some version of them: How can the judge in the Sunday Ticket trial overrule the jury? If the judge does that, why have it go to the jury in the first place? During the life cycle of a civil action, the judge has various ways to find in favor of one side or the other, with or without a jury verdict.
The Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss challenges right out of the gates whether there’s any legal basis for the claims being made, even if all of the facts in the complaint are accepted as true. The Rule 56 motion for summary judgment asks the court to find that there’s no reason for a jury to resolve the facts because the undisputed evidence developed during the discovery process show that the defendant should prevail. During the trial, Rule 50 gives the judge the ability to enter judgment as a matter of law — at any time.
The question under Rule 50, in this specific case, hinges on whether the evidence permits a reasonable jury to find in the plaintiffs’ favor. In many cases, the evidence permits reasonable minds to differ on what happened. If, in this case, the judge decides that, as to the key factual.
