In a ruling that pleased Major League Baseball, a U.S. federal court judge has stayed a lawsuit filed by the former limited partners of the Montreal Expos against baseball and Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. The ruling put a federal racketeering lawsuit on hold until after the partners go to arbitration with Loria.

In the 16-page ruling handed down yesterday, Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages of the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida also said she would entertain a request to grant an injunction should the limited partners' lawyers seek to file one to prevent Major League Baseball from selling or moving the Expos.

"It's good news for us, even though we lost, because it was us who originally filed to go to arbitration to begin with, so clearly we feel pretty strongly about our case," said Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer representing the 14 Canadian businesses and businessmen who were once partners with Loria in the Expos and now find themselves minority partners in the Marlins.

"What we didn't want to do was go to arbitration without knowing where we would go to get injunctive relief should they try to move the team. We know, now, that we can go to this judge. We also didn't think that we could arbitrate against Loria and [former Expos executive vice-president] David Samson because they had not signed the partnership agreement themselves. The judge has said we can arbitrate against Loria and Samson and all their entities.

"This is like a doubleheader. The second game is the lawsuit and it takes place after the first game, which is the arbitration. The case was stayed, not dismissed."

Mary Kay Braza, a lawyer representing Major League Baseball, commissioner Bud Selig and president Robert DuPuy, said: "It's very consistent with the way we viewed this dispute all along -- as a partnership dispute. It's not about baseball. We have believed from the outset that this lawsuit was just a partnership dispute masquerading as a RICO [racketeering] claim so that the Canadian partners could obtain publicity.

"We are pleased that the court has stayed the litigation so that the partnership dispute can be promptly resolved. We never felt this belonged in a federal court."

The former limited partners of the Expos, including BCE, the owner of Bell Globemedia, and Stephen Bronfman, the son of Expos founder Charles Bronfman, sued Selig as well as Major League Baseball and Loria under U.S. federal racketeering laws, claiming the defendants conspired to destroy baseball in Montreal.

Loria eventually sold the Expos to a limited partnership composed of the 29 other major-league franchises as part of a plan that allowed him to purchase the Marlins, clearing the way for former Florida general partner John Henry to purchase the Boston Red Sox.

Technically, the Expos' limited partners are now Loria's minority partners in the Marlins.

On Wednesday, Ungaro-Benages ruled against the defendants' motion to dismiss the suit based on a lack of venue, saying that since at least one significant meeting occurred in Florida and since the Marlins were based in the district, her court was the proper venue.

The arbitration will be heard by the American Arbitration Association. Kessler said two of three arbitrators had already been appointed and that another would be chosen soon. Once the panel is in place, it will set a timetable for hearings, and Kessler said it was possible that could happen before the end of the month.

The Expos will remain in Montreal for the 2003 season, although negotiations are continuing to have the team play 20 of its home games in San Juan.