Attorneys for DAZN have removed the Canelo Alvarez lawsuit against itself and Golden Boy Boxing to Federal Court. The Notice of Removal returns the lawsuit back to where it was originally filed last month.
Attorneys for the boxer filed a lawsuit against Golden Boy Boxing and DAZN citing breach of contract and requesting the court issue an order freeing Alvarez from his promotional contract with Golden Boxy as well as the remaining amount of his 11 fight $365 million contract. The lawsuit was filed in the Central District Court of California. However, the Court on its on doing dismissed the lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction but left open the opportunity for Alvarez to refile the lawsuit by September 28th. The refiling never came as Alvarez decided to file the case in Los Angeles Superior Court.
A removal to federal court is an automatic act so long as the moving party has grounds to do so under the law. In this case, DAZN’s U.S. headquarters is in New York and would qualify with the argument that’s is central place of business is in New York while the lawsuit was filed in California which creates a “diversity of citizenship.” Plainly spoken, federal courts would cover this lawsuit since there are parties from two different states and the amount at issue is over $75K.
Plaintiff could remand the lawsuit back to state court although they would have to bring a motion to do so and have the burden to prove that it needs to be back in state court due to the fact that the federal court lacks subject matter jurisdiction. This would be hard to prove as we just discussed the reasons why it should be removed (parties are from two different states AND Canelo is seeking the remaining money from his contract in excess of $250 million).
Payout Perspective:
If Canelo wants to file a remand, they have 30 days from the date of the Notice of Removal to do so. I doubt this will happen. Frankly, the move to state court made no sense on the part of Canelo’s lawyers as it was clear that DAZN would bring up this removal. The lawsuit with Golden Boy could have stayed in state court but the whole lawsuit will return to federal court. The issue now is the naming of DAZN and Golden Boy properly. As we stated earlier, the federal court dismissed DAZN’s case for lack of properly naming the defendants since each were Limited Liability Corporations. Canelo will now have to do this properly or risk having the lawsuit dismissed yet again. MPO will continue to follow.
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