Derek Jeter and Marlins trying to claim citizenship outside of America
The Miami Marlins’ new ownership group and CEO Derek Jeter haven’t endeared themselves to baseball fans in South Florida.
Jeter has presided over a fire sale of top talent, dealing National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees, fellow All-Star Marcel Ozuna to St. Louis, speedy second baseman Dee Gordon to the Mariners and outfielder Christian Yelich to the Brewers.
Now the Marlins are trying to move the entire franchise out of the country — at least on paper.
In a court filing last month, the team claimed it’s a citizen of the British Virgin Islands.
Miami-Dade County is suing the Marlins to recover a portion of the profits from Jeffrey Loria’s sale of the team to Jeter and his partners, as specified in a 2009 agreement. Loria claims he lost money on the $1.2 billion transaction last October.
I can confirm @MiamiDadeCounty is suing the Marlins 4 refusing 2 make 5% equity payment to the county @CityofMiami pic.twitter.com/JsANqXjtir
— Mike Hernández (@HernandezMA5) February 17, 2018
The lawsuit names both the Loria and Jeter ownership groups as defendants, claiming Jeter’s group — Marlins Teamco — is “contractually responsible” to cover issues related to Loria’s profit calculations.
As the Miami Herald’s Douglas Hanks reported Monday, the Marlins’ British Virgin Islands claim is an attempt to have a federally appointed arbitrator take over the lawsuit.
“One of the members of Marlins Teamco is a corporation incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with its principal place of business in the British Virgin Islands,” the Marlins wrote in the court filing. “Accordingly, Marlins Teamco is a citizen of the British Virgin Islands” under federal law governing treaties.
The British Virgin Islands entity is identified as Abernue Ltd.
“The suit said the company owns a piece of Marlins Holdings LLC, which is the sole owner of Marlins Funding, which is the sole owner of Marlins Teamco,” wrote Hanks.
Miami-Dade’s attorneys scoffed at the idea that international treaty law would govern a lawsuit involving a baseball team based in Miami and the county government that owns its ballpark.
“This is the most local of disputes, involving a locally-negotiated contract made between local parties under local law and requiring local performance,” the lawyers wrote.
They also argued that it would be “illogical” to move the case out of Miami-Dade Circuit Court because just one foreign citizen is a member of a parent company of a parent company of the Marlins, noting that the court wasn’t informed of the citizenship of the other members.
“The obvious reason is that, even under the Marlins’ theory … if even one of the Jeter Marlins’ members is a United States citizen, then the Jeter Marlins is a United States citizen.”
Miami-Dade not buying effort by Derek Jeter lawyers to have the Miami Marlins declared a foreign citizen for the purposes of deciding where to hear a county lawsuit against the team and Jeffrey Loria. pic.twitter.com/vCS6frpU5Y
— Doug Hanks (@doug_hanks) April 9, 2018
At this point, it seems like most people in South Florida wouldn’t care if the team did pick up and move to a Caribbean island. The paid attendance at Monday night’s game between the depleted Marlins and the visiting Mets was just 7,003 — the smallest ever at Marlins Park.
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