Major League Baseball seeks no class certification for minor leaguers

Attorneys for Major League Baseball are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to deny certification to a class of current and former minor league players seeking injunctive relief in a wage and hour lawsuit.

Elise M. Bloom, a partner with Proskauer Rose LLP, argued in a motion filed this week that a new class representative, Cody Sedlock, cannot represent the class in its bid for an injunction against the league and several teams.

"Sedlock lacks threshold Article III standing because he has never played for any of the club defendants, and he does not purport to (and cannot) assert any claims whatsoever under Arizona or California law," Bloom wrote.

The focus of her motion is the players' bid for injunctive relief, which she asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero to deny in its entirety.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel partially reversed Spero, who had allowed a California class to move forward with its damages case but denied classes for players in Arizona and Florida.

The appellate panel -- in a 2019 opinion written by Circuit Judge Richard C. Paez -- reversed Spero's refusal to certify classes in Arizona and Florida as well as the claim seeking injunctive relief.

That sent the case back to the Northern District of California. Senne et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, 14-CV00608 (N.D. Cal., filed Feb. 7, 2014).

The retired players are seeking damages for minimum wage and overtime pay violations. Sedlock, the new class representative who is a pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system, is seeking to represent the class for injunctive relief.

But Bloom wrote Sedlock cannot be a class representative, arguing the 9th Circuit opinion remanded the case on narrow grounds based on team activities in spring training and instructional leagues in Arizona and Florida.

She wrote that Sedlock, who filed a complaint in intervention in February, has not participated in any baseball activities in California or Arizona.

Further, she described his complaint -- which ostensibly seeks injunctive relief -- as a "thinly veiled" bid for monetary damages that is far too broad.

The case, which already has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and allowed to move ahead last year, is complicated by the itinerant nature of a minor league baseball player's career.

The players usually train or have instructional leagues in Arizona and Florida but play minor league baseball -- for teams affiliated with Major League Baseball franchises -- in states all over the country.

The original minor league plaintiffs have all retired since the case was filed in 2014.

Robert L. King, an attorney with Korein Tillery LLP, and Bobby Pouya, a partner with Pearson, Simon & Warshaw LLP, declined to comment Thursday. They are due to file a reply brief later this year.

Bloom could not be reached for comment.

One of her arguments against allowing Sedlock to serve as class representative is that the Baltimore Orioles are not a defendant in the case.