Magic moments

If you can't put a price on magic, why is it something you are able to go to court over?

“For me, it was not simply a question of breach of contract,” Bagneris testified. “It was also a matter of disrespect. We felt disrespected.”

The perks, and the status those perks afforded – such as watching performances from onstage – are nice, too, he said: “You can’t put a price tag on those kinds of magic moments. That’s the irreparable harm.”

Is that what this is about? Magic moments and feeling disrespected?  Or is it something else? 

But in an appeal filed Friday with Louisiana’s 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, the foundation’s attorneys argue that Sheppard erred in granting the injunction. The foundation requested expedited consideration from the 4th Circuit, given that the 2022 Jazz Fest opens April 29. No hearing date has been set on the appeal.

If Sheppard’s preliminary injunction remains in place, the foundation must provide Mercadel and Bagneris with 70 free Jazz Fest tickets and the opportunity to purchase 100 more at half price. They’d also each receive a free parking spot on the festival grounds; four laminated badges that grant access to viewing areas on the sides of the festival’s three main stages; six “silkie” stick-on passes for access to guest viewing areas near the main stages; four wristbands for access to a private lounge on the festival grounds; and the privilege to buy Jazz Fest posters at a discount.

Bagneris can't use all of those tickets himself to go look at the "magic." More likely what he's worried about here is somebody might lose some money. Anyone with a connection to recipients of these perks and a little bit of entrepreneurial pluck could certainly make something out of a wad of free and discounted tickets. The "irreparable harm" the injunction is meant to prevent likely stems from the threatened interruption of this commerce. 

If the injunction stays in place, Bagneris and Mercadel would apparently be the only recipients of those packages anymore. The perks rules, even for current board members, have been scaled back somewhat. But it's worth considering just how much of this is in circulation given the number of "Past Presidents" and board members receiving perks which, even under the new rules, carry substantial value.

The benefits received by current members of the board are now capped at $9,000 in total value and are reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Each laminate badge is reportedly valued at $1,950, so a board member who accepted all four available laminates could then accept only another 15 or so regular admission tickets, which have a gate price of $90 apiece.

Fifteen free tickets valued at $90 a piece plus the badges is still quite a haul. But 70 tickets with the option to buy 100 more at a discount is a big business worth suing over. Looks like this ruling came in just in time to save that business. 

UPDATE: Whoops maybe not!

On Wednesday, Louisiana’s 4th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. It reversed Civil District Judge Nicole Sheppard’s April 13 decision, which had granted Demetric Mercadel and Michael Bagneris the preliminary injunction they sought against the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc.

 

Mercadel and Bagneris, the 4th Circuit judges said, “failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they would suffer irreparable injury if they did not receive injunctive relief." They “have not demonstrated anything more than inconvenience.”

Maybe the state supreme court could still weigh in. But they'd only have a week to do that before Jazzfest opens. If there are any pending deals for vacation packages hinging on this, the suspense is building.

Wonder how that time sensitive irreperable harm manifests

Sounds to me like somebody has turned their Jazzfest perks into a lucrative business of some sort. 

The newly revealed court documents indicate Mercadel is seeking a preliminary injunction against the foundation before the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival opens at the Fair Grounds on April 29.

The issues “are time sensitive, particularly given that the Jazz Festival is set to begin later this month,” Mercadel’s attorneys wrote, arguing that a ruling on her request for an injunction should come before the event takes place. “Should the hearing be continued, there is a risk that the relief requested in the motion would be rendered moot and, as a result, irreparably harm Ms. Mercadel.”

In opposing Mercadel’s request, the board’s attorneys contend that she “incorrectly suggests that she will suffer such irreparable injury if NOJHFF does not provide her with ‘personal tickets to Jazz Fest, parking privileges, and options to buy additional tickets at discounted prices.’”

Mercadel, the board notes in the court documents, “is not prevented from buying tickets or parking passes to Jazz Fest, which are available to the general public.”

Bagneris and Mercadel attended an April 8 closed-door hearing in Sheppard's courtroom about Mercadel's request for a preliminary injunction, as did Francis.

I wonder how many Jazzfest vacation packages Mercadel and Bagneris are trying to sell and to whom?  I wonder if they have any short term rental properties involved.  I wonder why this whole city runs on various modes of "non-profit" exploitation of tourism for the benefit of a very small privileged class.

I wonder why the Jazzfest foundation got away with this graft all the way up until 2019.

However, those former presidents still received 70 free Jazz Fest tickets annually, according to sources familiar with the board’s operation. They could also purchase an additional 100 tickets at half-price.

The at-the-gate price of a Jazz Fest ticket this year is $90, meaning the 70 free tickets alone had a total face value of more than $6,000.

Past board presidents also reportedly received four laminated badges that granted access to reserved viewing areas in the wings of Jazz Fest’s three largest stages.

The board’s bylaws were amended after the 2019 Jazz Fest to eliminate these benefits. In a prepared statement released last week, David Francis, the current president of the Jazz & Heritage Foundation board, said that bylaws were changed in order to "preserve the 501c3 status of the foundation” and keep the foundation "in line with best practices for nonprofits."

 I wonder who finally threatened them.