Continuing our walkthrough of the Bragg vs Linden Lab filings, we get to 7 December 2006 and Linden Lab's filing in opposition to Bragg's motion to remand back to the state court.

Obviously if Linden Lab didn't want this to go to the federal court they wouldn't have filed the motion to remove in the first place. It was pretty obvious that they were going to oppose a motion to remand.

Linden Lab are going pretty hard now. They refer to Bragg's complaint as a cause celebre, and liken his tactics to that of a poker player, bluffing his way into a superior position. They too observe that Bragg is doing a whole heck of a lot to make his claim look like less than $10,000 USD in his filings, but refusing to state a number. Further, they point out the widespread damage that would be done to Linden Lab in the event Bragg won any of the injunctions, and accuse him of playing games with the court -- well, that part is pretty hard to argue with, Bragg's playing this one like a gamer.

Then we learn something rather interesting. Apparently when Bragg originally filed this at the Chester County Court of Common Claims (the state court), he said that this case was not eligible for the mandatory arbitration program, as the case exceeded $50,000 USD.

So, by Bragg's own admission to the Chester County Court of Common Claims (outside his actual filings) he admits that his claim is in excess of $50,000 USD, but in his filings he never specifies a figure greater than $8,000 USD and never refers to how much he is claiming in damages.

Linden Lab then pulls out it's own ammunition composed of legal precedents, rulings and points of law. One says that a case with mixed-jurisdiction participants can only be remanded back to the state court if the amounts involved are a matter of certainty. Bragg has evaded all certainty on the amounts thus far. They also point out, as I mentioned yesterday, that the amount that is relevant is not how much Bragg stands to spend or gain, but how much is at stake for the Defendant(s), something which Bragg rather glossed over (and something which stands a good chance of irritating a federal judge, who don't like to see filings that imply that they don't know procedure).

Linden Lab's fundamental assessment of the amounts is based thusly:
"The following relief is demanded in the Complaint: compensatory damages under various legal theories, punitive damages under Pennsylvania and California law, treble damages under Pennsylvania law, and significantly, declaratory relief and injunctive relief affecting Linden's entire user agreement and operating principles. Also sought in the Complaint are counsel fees under Pennsylvania and California statutory law and additional statutory damages under California's auction statute. Under the circumstances, a "reasonable reading of the value of the rights being litigated," which includes the threat to Linden's ability to keep and enforce
uniform terms and conditions of operation, clearly exceeds the requisite amount in controversy."
Linden Lab attach a copy of Bragg's complaint as their evidence. Further, Linden Lab points out that even if Bragg pins down his numbers now, it's too late to have the matter remanded based on the amount of the claim, if the removal was valid to begin with, and that the comparatively tiny amounts that Bragg refers to directly in his filings are actually irrelevant to Bragg's claims.

Linden Lab wonders aloud, why Bragg filed a claim before the District Justice, and then dropped the case the day before trial, as only a few thousand dollars were at stake. At least then. Now, by Bragg's admission there are much more.

Linden Lab then make a few basic assumptions and start doing the grade-school arithmetic required to work out the all the factors of the potential amount in dispute. At this point they finally get around to referring to Marc Bragg in terms of misconduct.

And then Linden Lab points out that Bragg has pretty much halved the subject-matter jurisdiction bar by naming both Linden Lab and Philip Rosedale as defendants. Penalties against them are aggregated, so really, Linden Lab has only to demonstrate $35,000 USD against each of the two defendants to keep the matter in federal court.

Linden Lab waves the $50,000 figure around some more. Below that, there would have been no case. It would have gone straight to arbitration. Bragg can't now claim that any smaller amount is involved.

The last matter that Linden Lab addresses is Bragg's complaint that the cost of arbitration is too high. They say that it's (a) Irrelevant, and (b) implies that Bragg believes that the federal court will see the merit of sending the case to arbitration if the remand is unsuccessful.

Well, yes, it's pretty much irrelevant, but that last may be a bit of bluster.

That's the last document we have available to us at the moment. Here it is in PDF format. We'll certainly keep our eye out for more. Thanks for following along this far. Hope you learned something along the way.

UPDATE: 17 January
Three new filings have become available. One from Linden Lab and two from Bragg. We'll be looking at those in a day or two.