UCLA pleads with federal judge to reopen baseball stadium

Despite hearing pleas that the weeklong closure of UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium has caused nothing but "trauma" to the public school's baseball team and did nothing to benefit homeless veterans in the area, a federal judge said Friday the stadium will remain cordoned off for at least another week.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said he needs that time to review documents that argue for and against the university's request to temporarily open the stadium back up.

"I don't want to decide that from the bench," he said.

During the hearing, an attorney representing UCLA, Reed Smith LLP partner Raymond A. Cardozo, urged Carter to temporarily lift the injunction he imposed last month. The judge closed the baseball facility to UCLA students because he found it illegally occupied West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs grounds, in violation of a land-use provision that prioritizes veterans' services.

Meanwhile, he has let an athletic facility of the private Brentwood School remain in use, saying it can be shared by students and homeless veterans.

"We're hoping we can end the lockout today with a proposal that's better than the current injunction that lets us go forward temporarily ... that hopefully works best for all and doesn't harm third parties that don't need to be harmed," Cardozo said. "Because I've got to tell you, judge, these last nine days have been really rough on the kids, their families, the players and the coaches. On the other side of that, while the stadium has been cordoned off, it doesn't seem like the veterans have gotten any benefit out of cordoning off the stadium."

In a motion to modify Carter's ruling and intervene, filed on Thursday, Cardozo argued that, in the next 12 months, UCLA is committed to increase the rent it pays to the VA, provide over $2 million of in-kind services and cede at least 2 acres of land.

The proposal also states that although UCLA would be using the stadium, veterans in the area would remain the priority throughout the campus by a continued "world class" health care service that Cardozo said has always been a land-use term that Congress distinctively enacted for UCLA's lease.

"The deal Congress made, when they specifically authorized this lease, was not what was fed to you at this trial in UCLA's absence," Cardozo said. "The provision of service to veterans is the predominant focus of the activities of UCLA's campus during the term of the lease. ... [Congress] knew there was a baseball stadium there and this property would be used for the baseball stadium. They were talking about the world class health services that UCLA delivers at the campus. And then they said you have to give these in-kind services."

However, attorneys for the veterans in the case objected to Cardozo's motion.

"I'm not sure exactly what we're doing now," Robins Kaplan LLP partner Roman M. Silberfeld told Carter. "The proposal of paying more rent is not acceptable to the plaintiffs, for sure, without much, much, more. The idea of two acres coming back in a year doesn't work."

Silberfeld's co-counsel, Mark D. Rosenbaum of Public Counsel, said he was "disturbed" to hear UCLA's proposal to cede land that Carter already found didn't belong to the university.

"To cede means I give something that I have that is in my possession to someone else. That's not the way it works here, particularly in light of the court's order, but even before that. That property belongs to the veterans and the VA. It is not for UCLA, especially after the court ruled the lease to be illegal."

However, because UCLA's motion was filed hours before Friday's hearing, which Rosenbaum and Silberfeld argued was procedurally improper, Carter said he would allow more time for an opposition before making a decision. "I'd like to see that in writing. In other words, if you believe that intervention isn't appropriate, I need a written document or something you've filed with court," Carter said.

If Carter decided to not lift his order, Cardozo urged the judge to issue at least a seven-day stay of the injunction pending an appeal. "We have to end this lockout, judge. It's fundamentally unjust and it's not necessary. We are providing something much more to the veterans than the law requires and they don't benefit a lick from an empty stadium. ... The veterans deserve this proposal. The desire of advocates to kick UCLA in the head does not benefit veterans."

Last month, Carter found the Department of Veterans Affairs violated its mandate to care for homeless veterans when it leased portions of the federal land on its West Los Angeles campus to third parties such as UCLA and Brentwood School.

The judge issued an order for some 2,000 temporary housing units to be built on the campus within the next six years and called for the existing leases that don't primarily benefit veterans to be terminated. Powers et al. v. McDonough et al., 2:22-cv-08357 (C.D. Cal., filed Nov. 15, 2022).

The third parties were not involved in the original lawsuit. However, representatives for each appeared before Carter during injunctive relief hearings over the past two weeks to propose plans of how the leased land would abide by provisions in the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016 that allows land to be leased as long as its usage prioritize veterans' needs.