TALLAHASSEE – An appeals court panel on Monday unanimously allowed Florida State University to file a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference, in the latest twist in a legal battle between two states over issues such as sports media rights.

Monday’s decision is based on dueling lawsuits filed in December over what is widely seen as Florida State’s desire to leave the ACC to join a more lucrative athletic conference — and the possibility that the university could face steep financial penalties if it makes such a decision.

FSU lawyers say the conference, which filed a lawsuit in North Carolina a day before Florida State filed its own in December in Leon County, rushed to court without obtain approval from member schools. FSU said the conference made the decision because it anticipated the lawsuit filed by the Florida State Board of Regents.

The conference argues that because its suit was filed first, the Florida challenge should be put on hold until the North Carolina case is resolved.

After Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper denied ACC’s request for a stay in June, the conference filed a petition for what is known as a writ of certiorari with the Court of appeal from the 1st district. Monday’s ruling, written by Justice Joseph Lewis, upheld Cooper’s ruling “because the trial court did not depart from the essential requirements of the law” in denying ACC’s request for a stay.

A writ of certiorari “is an extraordinary remedy that gives a higher court the prerogative to intervene and put an end to a miscarriage of justice,” says the 13-page decision, joined by Justices Ross Bilbrey and Mr. Kemmerly Thomas.

Such review “is not a substitute for an appeal and is intended for use only in very limited circumstances,” Lewis wrote, adding that the scope of certiorari “is more limited” than a direct appeal.

The ACC failed to demonstrate that “there was a departure from the essential requirements of the law” in Cooper’s decision that “resulted in significant prejudice to the remainder of the case” and that “cannot not be corrected on appeal after the judgment,” the panel said. find.

“In conclusion, because ACC has failed to establish a right to certiorari, we deny its petition on the merits,” the judgment states.

The panel also rejected the ACC’s argument that a “legal principle of priority” gave precedence to the North Carolina trial. The conference filed its complaint on Dec. 21 – the same day the FSU Board of Trustees issued notice of a Dec. 22 meeting to discuss “legal matters relating to” “intercollegiate athletics.”

The three-judge panel heard arguments during the appeal in September. A key issue in this case is a 2013 “grant of rights” agreement. The agreement transferred conference schools’ media rights to home games to the ACC, in exchange for a collective media rights contract with ESPN. The rights agreement was amended in 2016 and lasts until 2036.

Alan Lawson, a former Florida Supreme Court justice who represents the North Carolina-based ACC, pointed to “well-established” case law in saying Cooper erred in denying the conference’s request to stay the case from FSU while the North Carolina case was pending. out.

“FSU and each of its members have pledged that they will not take any action that would affect the validity and enforcement of the rights granted to the conference under this agreement,” Lawson said Sept. 11.

Lawson acknowledged that the timing of the ACC lawsuit was tied to Florida State administrators’ decision to challenge the deal.

“FSU has breached its contract with the ACC and all member institutions by contesting the rights agreement. This agreement, by its express terms, is irrevocable and they have promised that they will not contest it for the duration of the contract,” he said in September.

FSU moved to dismiss the conference’s North Carolina lawsuit, but Louis Bledsoe, chief judge of the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, business court, denied the request in April. The state of Florida appealed Bledsoe’s decision and the case is pending before the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The bitter legal fights continue in the 1st District Court of Appeal in a separate appeal from the ACC, which challenges an Aug. 13 order issued by Cooper denying the conference’s motion to dismiss the case .

In seeking dismissal, the ACC argued, in part, that Cooper did not have “jurisdiction” over the university’s claims against the conference.

The conference appeal claimed in part that the ACC filed the lawsuit in North Carolina “to protect itself and its other members” from possible actions by the state of Florida.

“Despite its plot to ambush the ACC, FSU had the gall to assert that it was the conference – not FSU – that engaged in improper forum seeking by filing suit in as a party injured by the FSU’s violation,” said a footnote in a brief filed by the ACC on October 2.

Cooper has scheduled a hearing Friday in the underlying case.