Via MMA Payout:
Golden Boy Promotions won a round against Al Haymon in court earlier this week as Judge John Walter denied Haymon’s motion to stay the court action to arbitrate the issues before the court. As a result, the case will proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The Court chided Haymon’s attorneys as on September 1st, Arbitrator Daniel Weinstein determined that Golden Boy’s claims related to events post-January 1, 2015 were not within the scope of the arbitration provision signed by the parties in the lawsuit. Thus, while a portion of the claims presented in Golden Boy’s lawsuit may have been subject to an underlying arbitration agreement, some claims, namely the Antitrust claims were not subject to arbitration. The Arbitrator also ruled that Bernard Hopkins, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, might not be subject to the Arbitration agreement and indicated further discovery was needed to determine this issue.
Some background from our July 8th post on this issue:
According to court documents, the Settlement Agreement was signed by the parties (including Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya) on December 18-19, 2014 and exercised by Haymon on January 8, 2015. According to Haymon, it was a “global” settlement of all issues between the parties. Haymon made “a substantial payment to Golden Boy” which Golden Boy accepted when the parties decided to end its business relationship. The Settlement includes an arbitration provision which would require that the parties be subject to an Arbitrator rather than litigate the matter in court.
The Arbitrator evaluated briefing from both parties on the jurisdiction issue and the settlement agreement and on September 1st decided that it did not have jurisdiction over the federal claims.