Judge Broderick Refuses To Stay Discovery in Suit Against Major League Baseball

On Thursday, Judge Vernon S. Broderick denied Major League Baseball’s motion to stay discovery in a sexual harassment and gender bias lawsuit filed by two aspiring umpires employed by MLB. The prospective umpires’ second amended complaint, filed in November, asserts hostile-work-environment, wrongful termination, and retaliation claims under the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In December, MLB filed a motion to dismiss certain of the plaintiffs’ claims, to sever plaintiffs’ claims, and to transfer each plaintiff’s remaining claims out of the Southern District of New York.

On January 3, MLB filed a motion to stay discovery in the case, arguing that its motions to dismiss, sever and transfer provided sufficient grounds on which to pause discovery until the motions were decided. Judge Broderick denied MLB’s motion to stay, finding that MLB had not shown good cause to pause discovery.

Judge Broderick found that MLB had acknowledged that, even if granted, their motion to dismiss would not dispose of the entire action, which weighed against a discovery stay. Furthermore, Judge Broderick found that MLB’s “general statement that ‘it expects that Plaintiffs will interpose broad discovery requests on MLB’s hiring/disciplinary/promotion policies’” was insufficient to show that MLB would be subjected to overbroad discovery. Judge Broderick focused on the fact that even if he dismissed plaintiffs’ City and State Human Rights Law claims,

Defendants will still need to litigate Plaintiff’s Title VII claims. Although there are certain differences between the City and State HRL and Title VII . . ., Defendants do not explain whether those differences are relevant, nor do they argue that dismissing the HRL claims will affect the overall scope of discovery in the case. Thus, they have not shown that either the breadth-of-discovery or unfair-prejudice factors favor a stay.

The case is Cooper v. The Office of The Commissioner of Baseball et al., 24 Civ. 3118.