The front in the battle between the ownership of the Dallas Stars and the ownership of the Dallas Mavericks over their shared use of the American Airlines Center has expanded.
While the Mavericks picked the Texas Business Court as the venue to settle the dispute, the Stars this week asked a federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware to call foul on that lawsuit. In the opening salvo, the Mavericks accused the Stars of breaching a contract by moving its corporate headquarters out of Dallas to Frisco. Hours later, the Stars filed a counterclaim, calling the lawsuit “an attempted hostile takeover” by the “Las Vegas-based owners” of the basketball team and asking the court to declare “no relocation event occurred” as defined in the agreements.
That part of the dispute remains before Texas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill, who has set a scheduling conference for Friday afternoon in the case. Judge Whitehill has also set the case for a January jury trial.
But on Tuesday, the hockey club filed a motion with the bankruptcy court in Delaware to reopen the 2011 proceeding in order to declare that the Mavericks are trying to relitigate an issue they missed the deadline to pursue.
“The claims asserted by the Mavericks in the Mavericks’ lawsuit are barred by res judicata based on entry of the confirmation order and violate the free and clear and plan injunction provisions of the confirmation order and the plan,” the motion reads.
Because the bankruptcy court retains exclusive jurisdiction over the plan and confirmation order that contained the injunction, the Stars argue, it is the bankruptcy court that “has sole authority to enforce [the injunction.]”
“Thus, issues regarding the Mavericks’ blatant violation of this court’s confirmation order need to be raised with this court in the first instance, and ‘non-bankruptcy courts’ may not be available at all to adjudicate this dispute,” the motion argues.
Stars attorney Joshua M. Sandler of Winstead issued a statement explaining that the Mavericks have known the Stars maintain a Frisco office since before the 2011 bankruptcy case.
“The Mavericks, along with the city of Dallas, also received notice of a court-approved bankruptcy plan requiring them to assert any claims against the Stars,” the statement reads. “However, because the Mavericks failed to raise any such claims during the bankruptcy case, the court-approved bankruptcy plan adjudicated and released the Mavericks’ claims.”
Charles “Chip” Babcock of Jackson Walker, who represents the Mavericks, told The Lawbook Wednesday evening that his client will “likely” soon be filing a response to the motion to reopen the Delaware bankruptcy case and is consulting with bankruptcy lawyers at Jackson Walker on next steps. He was dubious about the res judicata argument raised by the Stars.
“Recognizing everything is preliminary, it seems like a strange argument to me when there’s a contract in place today that says nobody is obligated to bring claims until they want to and there’s no waiver argument,” he said.
Sandler’s statement also noted the Mavericks have known about the Stars’ Frisco office “for more than two decades but never raised any issue until the Mavericks changed ownership.”
“In fact, for over a decade, the Texas Legends, the Mavericks’ G-League team, have played their games in Frisco at the Comerica Center, under a lease agreement with the Stars.”
The motion to reopen the Delaware bankruptcy case shows the Stars have also hired Stanley B. Tarr, Lawrence R. Thomas III and John E. Lucian of Blank Rome to represent it. The case has been assigned to Chief Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens.
In addition to the Tuesday motion seeking to reopen the bankruptcy case, the Stars filed two other documents with the Texas Business Court: an answer to the Mavericks’ lawsuit denying all allegations against it, and a first amended counterclaim.
In those pleadings, the Stars told Judge Whitehill the Mavericks actually violated its contract with the city in 2024 by changing the location of its principal corporate and executive offices to Las Vegas. The agreement requires Dallas be designated as the location of the team’s principal corporate and executive offices.
“In other words, the Mavericks engaged in the very conduct they alleged entitles them to take full control of the American Airlines Center,” Sandler said in a statement.
The Mavericks are also represented by Chris Bankler and Sarah Starr of Jackson Walker.
The Stars are also represented by Cory Johnson, John Janicek, Andrew Patterson, Phillip Lamberson, Frank O. Carroll III, Annmarie Chiarello and Ben Hamel of Winstead.
The case number is 25-BC01B-0049.