An arbitration committee of Major League Baseball executives was unbiased when it made a decision in a financial dispute between the Orioles and Washington Nationals, New York’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
In the decision — a win for the Nationals — the New York Court of Appeals rejected the Orioles’ appeal and their argument that MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred were biased against them.
The Orioles could, in theory, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it’s unlikely the court would accept the case. The decision Tuesday could pave the way for the Nationals to receive roughly $100 million that the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network placed in escrow in 2019.
The teams have disagreed for years as to how much revenue from MASN each team should receive. MASN is co-owned by the clubs, with the Orioles controlling a majority stake.
“By affirming the confirmation of the second arbitration award and directing that the money judgment be vacated, we hold the highly sophisticated parties to the terms of their agreement,” the New York court’s decision stated. The court ruled 6-0.
MASN was created in 2005 as a byproduct of the Montreal Expos moving to Washington. The network has shown both Orioles and Nationals games since then, with the Baltimore club receiving a majority of the profits as compensation for the Nationals moving into their territory.
In 2011, the teams could not agree on how much each should receive for a five-year window from 2012 to 2016. MASN paid the Nationals $198 million for those five years, but the Washington club argued it should have been $475 million.
An arbitration committee of three MLB executives, a forum the clubs had previously agreed to, heard the arguments and decided in 2014 that the Nationals should have received $298 million, which is $100 million more than the network paid the team. The Orioles appealed and that arbitration decision was thrown out by a New York judge based on “evident partiality” in the committee.
A second panel, composed of three different MLB executives, decided upon a similar number, $297 million, in 2019. The Orioles appealed that decision and in March, attorneys for the Orioles and Nationals argued in Albany, New York.
Carter Phillips, an attorney representing MASN and the Orioles, told the court that MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred have publicly supported the Nationals. He argued that the arbitration panel, which Orioles’ attorneys characterized as “hand-picked” by Manfred was, thus, biased.
“[Manfred’s] view was the Orioles should lose, and he has said that over and over and over again, so that partiality continues on to this day,” Phillips said in March.
Nationals’ attorney Derek Shaffer argued that MLB’s arbitration committee was impartial and that the forum was “exactly what Baltimore signed up for when they did this agreement.”
This article will be updated.
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