A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that the lawsuit brought by Kevin Kelly and brothers Brandon and Brent Tate against AEW, Tony Khan, and Ian Riccaboni will be moved to federal court in Florida.
Judge Mia R. Perez’s ruling was issued on Thursday, siding with AEW. The wrestling company argued that the clauses in the plaintiffs’ talent contracts, requiring disputes to be litigated in Florida, where AEW is headquartered, should be enforced.
Perez rejected arguments from Kelly and the Tates that those clauses were unfair or unreasonable. The judge cited that most of the contracts, evidence, and witnesses for this case are based in Florida.
To overcome clauses requiring disputes to be handled in specific courts, such as the clauses in Kelly and the Tates’ contracts, plaintiffs needed to show that those requirements were unreasonable. Specifically, they would have had to convince the judge that the clauses were the result of fraud, violated public policy, or that litigation in Florida would have been so inconvenient for the plaintiffs — who in this case live in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, respectively — that it would deny them a fair trial. Instead, Perez found that these circumstances don’t meet that criteria.
“The forum selection clauses are standard within the professional wrestling industry, and the contracts were primarily negotiated, executed, and administered from Jacksonville, Florida,” Perez wrote in her order. “Thus, enforcement in Florida would not be so seriously inconvenient as to be unreasonable. Considering the convenience of the parties and the interest of justice, the balance favors transfer to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.”
The case will continue in that court where Kelly and the Tates face another imminent hurdle. AEW also filed a motion to compel arbitration, which could force the plaintiffs to resolve their claims privately, outside of any public court, as their talent contracts purportedly require. Both sides have already submitted arguments on the issue of the enforceability of the arbitration clauses, as well.
With the case being moved to Florida, a new judge will decide whether the arbitration clauses should be enforced.
Steve New, attorney for the plaintiffs, responded to POST Wrestling via email, stating, “We respect the judge’s decision and look forward to litigating the issues in Florida.”
We contacted representatives for AEW to request a comment and will update this report if they respond.
The lawsuit was originally filed in late August in state court in Philadelphia before AEW filed motions in federal court in Pennsylvania to continue litigation there.
Kelly and the Tate twins’ allegations include defamation, breach of contract, and misclassification. Kelly claims Riccaboni wrongly framed him as a member of QAnon after Kelly made a social media post about the film The Sound of Freedom, which Kelly argues led to his termination from AEW. The Tate twins say Khan made damaging comments at a press conference about their reliability after the Tates were among the talent cut from the roster in April.
