Taxpayers weren't the only Miami residents royally screwed in the Marlins Park deal, at least according to one group of workers who actually built the $2 billion fiasco. The workers say they were systemically underpaid by a contractor building the ballpark.
A federal judge recently gave them permission to go forward with a class-action claim, and he hilariously threw shade at the team -- and its "unremarkable record" -- in his ruling.
See also: Six Lies About the Marlins Stadium
The opinion comes via Judge Ed Carnes, chief justice for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Carnes is apparently a baseball buff -- or at least decided to a have a little fun with his November 14 ruling. Here's how he began:
"After a ghostly voice told him "If you build it, he will come," Ray Kinsella turned his corn field into a ballpark to lure "Shoeless" Joe Jackson out of his eternal retirement. Apparently without hearing any voice but their own, the Miami Marlins built a state-of-the-art 37,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof hoping to lure their fans out of retirement, or at least out of the apathy induced by South Florida's sultry summers and the Marlins' unremarkable record."
Snap! But what about those workers' claims of unfair compensation, Judge Carnes?
"If the allegations in the complaint are taken as true," Carnes continues, "one of the contractors disregarded a non-baseball axiom: When you hire workers to 'build it,' you had better pay them the wages they are due under the Fair Labor Standards Act."
Oh, judicial humor. Carnes later ruled on a technical legal point that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida had erred in dismissing the workers' claims in April 2013.
The workers say one of the contractors, Form Works, didn't pay them for overtime. Carnes' ruling means they can go forward with their attempt to get a class-action suit brewing over the dispute.
Form Works' attorney didn't return a message from Riptide seeking comment on the ruling.
Enjoy Carnes' legal stylings for yourself:
(H/T to The National Law Journal)
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