Report: Marlins claim citizenship in British Virgin Islands to avoid Miami court
The Miami Marlins are claiming corporate citizenship in the British Virgin Islands in an attempt to avoid going to court in Miami over the profits from Jeffrey Loria's $1.2 billion sale of the team, according to a report from the Miami Herald.
The Marlins' lawyers told a federal judge that at least one corporation that owns part of Marlins Teamco -- the company new owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman formed last year -- is based in the Caribbean and, therefore, the team's dispute with Miami-Dade County should be settled by international rules.
The British Virgin Islands entity is Abernue Ltd., which owns a piece of Marlins Holdings LLC, which is the sole owner of Marlins Funding, which is the sole owner of Marlins Teamco, according to the suit.
"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 last month. "Accordingly, Marlins Teamco is a citizen of the British Virgin Islands under federal law governing treaties."
Miami-Dade, in which the Marlins' ballpark resides, is suing the team and Loria over a profit-sharing dispute related to Loria's sale of the Marlins. A 2009 profit-sharing deal between the two sides said the county and city of Miami would receive a 5 percent share of the profits from any sale of the team that took place within 10 years of Marlins Park's opening in 2012.
Loria's lawyers compiled a report that said his organization discovered the terms of the deal resulted in a profit-sharing calculation of zero, according a previous report from the Herald. Previous debt, an agreed-to underlying value of the franchise at about $625 million and taxes tied to the sale are among the reasons laid out in for the calculation.
Loria claimed a $140 million paper loss on his sale of the team.
If British Virgin Islands citizenship for the team is approved, the case would be moved from a Miami-Dade judge who has already sided with the city and county in a preliminary ruling rejecting arbitration requested by Loria's lawyers to a federal judge, according to the Herald.
"This is the most local of disputes, involving a locally-negotiated contract made between local parties under local law and requiring local performance," county lawyers wrote in their argument to keep the lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
"If even one of the Jeter Marlins' members is a United States citizen, then the Jeter Marlins is a United States citizen."
--Field Level Media