ST. LOUIS _ Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, his team and the National Football League want the U.S. Supreme Court to hear why a lawsuit over the team's 2016 departure from St. Louis should be settled behind closed doors.
A day after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the relocation lawsuit should be decided in a St. Louis courtroom _ and not in arbitration _ Kroenke's lawyers filed a motion to halt the court's order until they can make their pitch to the nation's highest court.
Kroenke's lawyers said the Missouri high court's ruling will cause "irreparable harm" to the Rams by denying the team's "bargained-for right to resolve this case outside of court in an efficient and cost-saving manner."
The lawsuit _ the biggest of four filed by fans and government entities after the team's exodus _ was filed 15 months after the Rams left. The dome authority, St. Louis and St. Louis County sued the Rams, the NFL and 31 other NFL teams and owners alleging breach of contract, fraud, illegal enrichment and interference in business by the Rams and the NFL, causing significant public financial loss.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached Thursday.
Kroenke's appeal faces long odds of reaching the nation's highest court, which hears only a sliver of the thousands of petitions it receives per year.
Three courts have already ruled against Kroenke:
St. Louis Circuit Court ruled against Kroenke's motion to transfer the case to arbiters in December 2017.
A Missouri appeals court decided in April that said the Rams couldn't resolve the lawsuit in arbitration based on the language of the team's 1995 lease agreement.
And, on Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court again denied Kroenke's appeal.
