Photo: Nicolae Stoian
On Tuesday, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania released a trove of documents related to Peter Nowak’s lawsuit against Philadelphia Union for wrongful termination.
Philly.com’s Jonathan Tannenwald tweeted excerpts from the documents on Tuesday night.
Below are the documents in full, as retrieved via the Public Access to Court Electronic Documents (PACER) service:
- MOTION to Confirm Arbitration Award (Defendants’ Response to Plaintiff’s Motion to Vacate the April 21, 2015 AAA Interim Award and Defendants’ Cross Motion to Confirm the Interim Award as Well as the AAA Final Opinion and Award Entered on November 5, 2015) filed by KEYSTONE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, PENNSYLVANIA PROFESSIONAL SOCCER, LLC.Certificate of Service. Download (PDF) (10 pages)
- (Attachment: No. 1 Text of Proposed Order) Download (PDF) (1 page)
- Memorandum of Law re MOTION to Confirm Arbitration Award (Defendants’ Response to Plaintiff’s Motion to Vacate the April 21, 2015 AAA Interim Award and Defendants’ Cross Motion to Confirm the Interim Award as Well as the AAA Final Opinion and Award Enter filed by KEYSTONE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, PENNSYLVANIA PROFESSIONAL SOCCER, LLC. Download (PDF) (24 pages)
- Administrative Record (Joint Appendix of Exhibits – as ordered by the Court on December 18th – Doc. 42)
- Exhibit A [Nowak’s contract and compensation] Download PDF (26 pages)
- Exhibit B [Union’s answering statement, counterclaim request for arbitration] Download PDF (41 pages)
- Exhibit C
- Tab 1 [Union’s post-hearing brief] Download PDF (116 pages)
- Tab 2 [Union’s proposed statement of undisputed material facts] Download PDF (76 pages)
- Exhibit D [Nowak’s post-hearing brief] Download PDF (67 pages)
- Exhibit E [Union’s reply to Nowak’s post-hearing brief] Download PDF (32 pages)
- Exhibit F [Nowak’s post-hearing reply brief] Download PDF (16 pages)
- Exhibit G [Arbitrator’s interim opinion and award] Download PDF (51 pages)
- Exhibit H [Union’s petition for attorney’s fees and costs] Download PDF (187 pages)
- Exhibit I [Nowak’s memorandum of opposition to Union’s petition for attorney’s fees and costs] Download PDF (5 pages)
- Exhibit J [Union’s reply to Nowak’s memorandum of opposition] Download PDF (13 pages)
- Exhibit K [Nowak response to arbitrator’s order of Oct. 7, 2015] Download PDF (3 pages)
- Exhibit L [Arbitrator’s final opinion and award] Download PDF (11 pages)
- MOTION to Vacate Arbitration Award filed by PIOTR NOWAK.Memorandum of Law and Certificate of Service. Download PDF (6 pages)
- (Attachment: No. 1 Memorandum Memorandum of Law and Certificate of Service) Download PDF (17 pages)
- RESPONSE in Opposition re MOTION to Confirm Arbitration Award (Defendants’ Response to Plaintiff’s Motion to Vacate the April 21, 2015 AAA Interim Award and Defendants’ Cross Motion to Confirm the Interim Award as Well as the AAA Final Opinion and Award Enter filed by PIOTR NOWAK. Download PDF (4 pages)
- (Attachments: No. 1 Memorandum Reply Brief in Further Support of Motion to Vacate Arbitration and Brief in Opposition to Cross Motion to Confirm Arbitration with Certificate of Service) Download PDF (5 pages)
We’ll have analysis and reaction to the contents of the documents later here at PSP.
UPDATE: On January 11, a judge upheld the arbitrator’s decision in favor of the Union.
- MEMORANDUM AND/OR OPINION. SIGNED BY HONORABLE MARK A. KEARNEY ON 1/11/16 Download PDF (11 pages)
- ORDER THAT PLFF’S MOTION TO VACATE AN ARBITRATION AWARD (ECF DOC. NO. 46) IS DENIED & DEFTS’ CROSS-MOTION TO CONFIRM AN ARBITRATION AWARD (ECF DOC. NO. 43) IS GRANTED. THE 4/21/2015 SOCCER LLC & KEYSTONE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LLC’S ARE CONFIRMED. PIOTR NOWAK’S CLAIMS ARE DENIED. THE CLERK IS DIRECTED TO MARK THIS CASE CLOSED. SIGNED BY HONORABLE MARK A. KEARNEY ON 1/11/16. Download PDF (1 page)
I don’t want to read any more comments until people have read and reread all 711 pages to get a full understanding.
Nowak is the Devil. Our ownership had no idea how to run a pro sports team.
I just saved you from reading 711 pages.
+1
This is so funny.
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You know what I learned just by glancing at the idea of this…. there’s NO WAY I had/have a future in litigation.
Can’t say I read every page, but there are some interesting insights into how MLS works. Using reduction in allocation money as a fine, etc. Just a peek behind the iron curtain.
Just getting started on it but already got a chuckle on Page 10, Section V, Item D in Nowak’s contract:
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The Union agreed to buy him 3 suits, 3 dress shirts, 3 pairs of dress shoes, and 3 ties at the beginning of each season.
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They drew the line at socks and underwear I guess.
Apparently Zod wasn’t one of the choices of underwear brief and the knee high Picachu socks weren’t yet in existence.
My first “is this normal?” moment:
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In Exhibit B, the Union had an agreement to pay 85k a year to Pino Sports, LLC. to “on a non-exclusive basis, to film, record and photograph Manager, alone or together with others.”
Man good for Pino LLC. What a score.
No.
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That stood out to me too, but I was already late in writing my piece and short on time and didn’t see an easy way to include it with appropriate detail. We’ll revisit later. But I’ll put money down that it’s a company formed by Nowak himself. Anyone who has time, go look up the LLC incorporation filing in Florida (or Pennsylvania, Illinois or Delaware possibly) public documents online. It’s probably available.
I hear you. There is soooo much in this document release to write and talk about that it will take weeks to months to cover everything interesting. I’ve only read about 100-110 pages so far and have like 20 things worth talking about.
Is it normal in professional sports for a Manager or Coach to also get extra money as a result of contracts awarded to companies they own? Especially one that their soul purpose is to film and record just them? Doing a quick google search finds a few interesting facts about Pino. Everything was sent to a Lawyer in Chicago who doesn’t specialize in sports law and it was originally registered as an LLC in Florida in April of 2009 about a month before he was named manager of the Union. He is also listed as the Chairman of the company as well. Something stinks about this.
More details on forcing injured players to do the trail run (according to the Union):
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Head trainer Rushing listed four players on the injury list to Nowak that day and strongly recommended that three of them not participate in the run, two had ankle injuries and one a toe injury. Nowak forced them to participate even if just walking. The Union claim all three players had “set-backs” including that two of those players were unable to play until 16 days after the run.
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Also, one player is claimed to have been injured during the run missing at least one game and was on crutches for a few days due to an acute stress reaction in his foot.
I always contended that Gabriel Gomez was a good player and he was just injured throughout most of the season. I stand by this, especially now.
Assignment tonight: Everyone dig through this and post the most absurd stuff you fine.
Are you trying to break the internet?
you win
Wait a minute … judging from the comments here and on and twitter, your workplaces don’t have mass spankings by your bosses?????? #ineedanewjob
If only there was someone who could read and make sense of this stuff.
You’re hired.
I wish they could find a labor lawyer to look over it
Where could we possibly find such a man or woman?
“Spanky” Nowak? HA!
My conclusion: Spanking = playoffs
Spank me hard in to the playoffs please.
Fantastic discussion ! I learned a lot from the facts . Does anyone know if my business can find a template NYC RPIE-2010 Instruction copy to type on ?
Hi Glen. my partner used a template a form example with this link http://goo.gl/hkrYD2