Astros season ticket holder suing team has no legal standing, lawyers say
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An Astros season ticket holder filed a $1 million lawsuit in February against the Houston Astros organization following the cheating scandal, and the organization filed their first response Tuesday.
Adam Wallach of Humble wants to stop the team from raising prices, and alleges the scandal diminished the value of his seats for the past three seasons, as well as the upcoming season.
The lawsuit was filed in February.
Astros lawyers responded by saying "the sign stealing controversy has been a great source of disappointment to Astros fans, as well as as the organization."
In regards to the lawsuit, they said there is no legal standing for season ticket holders to recover damages for their disappointment over the team's performance.
In addition to Wallach, his attorney Mitchell Toups said the lawsuit is a class action suit for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 full and partial season ticket holders.
"By their wrongful actions, inaction and/or omissions, Defendants violated the rights of Plaintiff and each Class Member in the same way by overcharging them for season tickets while Defendants and their employees and representatives knowingly and surreptitiously engaged in a sign stealing scheme in violation of MLB Rules and Regulations, and secretly put a deficient product on the field that could result (and now has resulted) in severe penalties instituted by MLB," the lawsuit states.
In addition to asking for $1 million, the lawsuit asks a judge to prevent the Astros from increasing season ticket prices for the next couple of years.
"Plaintiff and Class Members are also entitled to injunctive relief prohibiting Defendants from increasing 2021 and 2022 season ticket prices," the lawsuit states.
In January, MLB issued a report on the Astros cheating scandal. The league suspended general manager Jeff Lunhow and manager AJ Hinch for the season. Both were then fired by the Astros.
In the report, MLB said it found Astros players used trash cans and a monitor to steal signs during the 2017 season. The report also stated sign-stealing continued into 2018 in the Astros' replay review room, where staffers decoded signs using the center field camera feed.
The investigation revealed no violations of the policy by the Astros in the 2019 season or 2019 postseason.
There are three lawsuits against the Astros, all regarding the "sign stealing" scandal, as the paperwork filed by the Astros lawyers states.
The Astros' response to the lawsuit: "A ticket holder has only the right to enter a venue and to have a seat for the ticketed game, and cannot complain afterwards that the game should have been played differently."
The video above is from a previous story.
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