Judge dismisses hearing, appoints mediator between Los Angeles Dodgers, Fox media – MLB News
The Los Angeles Dodgers are going through difficult times, first they had to face problems in the bidding processes and then the club filed a case against the Fox Media network, claiming they are influencing the bidding process for media rights of 2012 season.
Another problem has enveloped the National League Western club, as on Monday, November 21, the judge hearing the case in bankruptcy court in Delaware cancelled the hearing process, appointing a mediator to solve the issue with the consent of both parties.
According to the media sources, a hearing was scheduled for the Tuesday, but was cancelled after Fox lawyer entered a request to cancel a November 30 hearing to provide some time to settle the issue with the Dodgers. The postponed hearing is expected next
week, but will depend solely on the further orders from the court.
However, at this time, the Dodgers has refused to postponed the hearing process, complaining that the Fox media network and their subsidiary Prime Ticker regional sports are trying to sell the club and the media rights to get out of the bankruptcy.
A retired U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan Jr. has been appointed as a mediator to settle the issue between the Dodgers and Fox. A mediation process will start on November 28 in Los Angeles. If the mediation process does not bring any decision, the Judge
will then order his verdict and it might land in favour of Fox, according to legal experts.
It will be the second mediation process the Dodgers will undergo in last fifteen days. The Dodgers and Major League Baseball were ordered to settle the dispute over the club’s reorganisation plan with an arbitration process. Both parties were reached to
a decision calling for the court-supervised sale of both the club and the media rights.
The case was started in June when the Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt blamed MLB commissioner Bud Selig for not approving the multibillion-dollar agreement with Fox and filed a case to pursue bankruptcy protection. The Fox network however was of the opinion
that McCourt has filed bankruptcy case only to protect his financial assets, not the club. In return, Fox filed a case to dismiss the bankruptcy protection case.
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