Vince McMahon has made it known that the wrongful termination suit brought against him by former XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck has no merit.
Part of that was the signing of certain players that didn’t fit the ideal McMahon says he had for the league. He wanted players who were without a past with legal issues, and former suspensions by other leagues.
The signing of former Browns WR Antonio Callaway is the one that has stuck in the proverbial craw. McMahon claims he was against the signing from the start, and since Calloway was injured before he ever took the field, leaving the league responsible for his treatment.
But hang on. On March 26th, a motion filed by Luck’s legal team asks the court to compel the defendants to produce emails that allegedly speak to the matter at hand. However, McMahon’s team says these emails contain privileged information, and are not eligible to be part of discovery in the case.
Luck’s reps call nonsense, saying the emails about Calloway were not with an attorney, and were not seeking legal advice; 2 of the categories necessary in Connecticut court to deem something privileged information.
“Defendants are improperly utilizing the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine to shield documents that are discoverable. To invoke the attorney-client privilege, a
communication must satisfy four criteria:
(1) the attorney participating in the communication must be acting in a professional capacity as an attorney; (2) the communication must be between the attorney and the client; (3) the communication must be for the purpose of providing legal advice; and (4) the communication must be made in confidence.“
Also included in the motion, is the request that the court preview the documents to judge and redact any privileged information; if any exists.
There are 4 parts to the motion:
- Wagner emails
- Calloway emails
- Performance emails
- Bad Faith emails
McMahon claims that each of these contain privileged information, and therefore aren’t available as evidence.
“To determine if Defendants’ termination of
Mr. Luck was proper, the quality of Mr. Luck’s response, direction and handling of each legal matter can only be determined in the context of the specific content of the allegedly privileged
communication. Yet, because Defendants blanketly assert that Mr. Luck’s non-performance of his XFL duties (including XFL legal matters) between March 14, 2020 and April 9, 2020 justify for
cause termination, they have waived any claim of privilege for the Performance Emails. See Metropolitan life Insurance Co.., 249 Conn.at 52.“
We’ll see if this gains any traction, but the fact that McMahon is fighting allowing the emails to be produced makes you think there could be something in them that could help Luck’s case.
Stay with us as this progresses.
For the Love of Football
