Tom Brady Vs. The NFL: A Classic Fight For Home-field Advantage

On Tuesday, the NFL issued a final written decision denying the NFL Players Association's appeal of Tom Brady's suspension for his alleged involvement in "Deflate-Gate." The decision is signed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Within hours of the decision, the NFL filed a lawsuit on its home field in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The NFL's five-page lawsuit asks the court to confirm the NFL's decision. On Wednesday, Brady filed a fifty-four page complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota asking the court to vacate, or overturn, the NFL's decision.

Despite the competing lawsuits, only one of these federal courts will decide the case. Federal courts generally follow what is called the "first-filed rule," which states that when two lawsuits have been filed in different courts relating to the same dispute, the first-filed suit has priority, and the later-filed suit should be dismissed or stayed. There are exceptions to this rule, but the court in which the first-filed suit is pending gets to decide whether an exception applies.

The Southern District of New York will analyze two potential exceptions to the first-filed rule: (1) whether special circumstances warrant giving priority to the second suit; and (2) whether the balance of convenience favors the second-filed action. See Employers Ins. of Wausau v. Fox Entm't Group, Inc., 522 F.3d 271, 274 (2d Cir. 2008).

Special circumstances exist when a lawsuit is filed in response to a direct threat of litigation that gives specific warnings as to deadlines and subsequent legal action. It was widely reported that Brady intended to file a lawsuit if the NFL upheld his suspension, so this factor likely weighs in favor of transfer of the dispute to Minnesota.

Special circumstances also exist when the first-filed case was the result of a practice known as "forum shopping" whereby litigants seek out a perceived favorable forum for their dispute. Did the NFL choose a favorable forum? Or course, but it also chose its home forum rather than a faraway district with little connection to the actual events. More accurately, the NFL "forum-fenced" in its home district, as the NFL is headquartered in Manhattan, which is also where many of the underlying events took place and many of the witnesses are located. This factor weighs in favor of the Southern District of New York keeping the case.

Brady himself engaged in classic forum-shopping...