Jones v. PGA Tour, Inc.

Background

The plaintiffs sued PGA Tour, Inc. over alleged antitrust violations and related claims concerning restrictions on professional golfers’ participation in LIV golf events. PGA Tour later filed a counterclaim against LIV Golf, Inc., and amended it to add the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (PIF) and its Governor, His Excellency Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, as counterdefendants.

Before PIF and HE Al-Rumayyan were named as counterdefendants, PGA Tour served them with subpoenas requiring depositions and document production at PGA Tour’s counsel’s office in New York City. They objected and moved to quash the subpoenas. Among other arguments, they asserted that the subpoenas violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45’s 100-mile geographical limit. PGA Tour moved to compel compliance.

The magistrate judge’s February 9, 2023 order quashed the deposition portions of the subpoenas because PGA Tour had not tendered required witness fees, while allowing re-service with those fees. The magistrate judge otherwise denied the motion to quash, modified some document requests to reduce burden, and gave PIF and HE Al-Rumayyan the option to change the place of compliance from New York City to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Review Standard

PGA Tour sought relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a), which permits a district judge to modify or set aside a magistrate judge’s nondispositive pretrial order if it is clearly erroneous or contrary to law. The district court reviewed the challenged ruling under Ninth Circuit law and generally limited its review to the record before the magistrate judge.

Court’s Analysis

The court held that Rule 45 permits a subpoenaed nonparty to be required to attend a deposition or produce documents only within 100 miles of where the person resides, is employed, or regularly conducts business in person. The party moving to quash bears the burden of persuasion on the geographical-limit issue.

The magistrate judge had found the evidence inconclusive regarding whether PIF and HE Al-Rumayyan regularly conducted business within 100 miles of New York City. The district court agreed with the magistrate judge’s factual findings but concluded that the magistrate judge should have applied the law to those facts. The record showed that HE Al-Rumayyan had made nine trips to or within 100 miles of New York City since January 2021, totaling 34 days. The trips included New York events and multiple days of LIV-related business in Bedminster, New Jersey. The court found that evidence sufficient to satisfy the “regularly transacts business in person” requirement for both HE Al-Rumayyan and PIF.

The court also held that the magistrate judge lacked authority under the current version of Rule 45 to modify the subpoenas by giving the witnesses an option to change the compliance location. The court found that reliance on older authority was an additional reason the modification was contrary to law. Because the court found no authority to make the modification, it did not reach PGA Tour’s argument that the competing concerns did not support moving the depositions to Saudi Arabia.

Disposition

The court GRANTED PGA Tour’s motion for relief from the magistrate judge’s order. It VACATED the portion allowing PIF and HE Al-Rumayyan to change the place of compliance from New York City to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and terminated the motion identified as ECF 288. The opinion did not alter the magistrate judge’s other rulings described above.