Sports Report

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky found that its district was the proper forum to hear a dispute over the international broadcast rights to a fight in Louisville, KY, between English heavyweight boxer Danny Williams and former-heavyweight-champion Mike Tyson. Straight-Out Promotions LLC v. Brearly (International) Ltd., 3:04CV-473-H. Negotiations between Straight-Out and foreign broadcast distributor Brearly included several distribution agreements, e-mails and a letter of modification from Brearly. The district court noted: “The parties never mutually executed or mutually accepted a written agreement containing a forum selection clause [which Brearly claimed stipulated Gilbraltar]. Indeed, it is not clear whether relations between the parties is governed by any one written agreement or whether an e-mail contains the only known agreed-upon terms. That cannot be known until a trial of this case. … [T]he weight of the evidence in the record supports the conclusion that there was no meeting of the minds on any of the written distribution agreements much less a forum selection clause. … Venue is proper in this district both because a substantial part of the events giving rise to the dispute occurred in Louisville and because Brearly was subject to personal jurisdiction at the time the action was commenced.”