SeaWorld has lost its bid to make its opposing counsel pick up a $2 million and running legal tab in a class action lawsuit over life in captivity for killer whales.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California denied SeaWorld's motion for sanctions against Covington & Burling, which has five lawyers of record working on the case in San Francisco and San Diego. The lawsuit accuses Orlando-based SeaWorld of misleading potential visitors with false claims that captive orcas live as long as those in the wild and that babies are allowed to stay with their mothers. The plaintiffs argue they would not have purchased tickets and merchandise from SeaWorld, had they known those claims were untrue.

“SeaWorld asks the court to impose sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 (“Rule 11”) against plaintiffs' counsel on the basis that plaintiffs' deposition testimony shows their claims were groundless and counsel knew—or should have known—that to be true,” White wrote in a four-page order. “SeaWorld also argues that the involvement of Earth Island Institute (“EII”) and the International Marine Mammal Project in this case demonstrates that counsel filed and pursued the case for an improper purpose.”

SeaWorld opposed the organizations assisting the plaintiffs because of their opposition to orcas being kept in captivity. SeaWorld accused Covington lawyers of recruiting “puppet plaintiffs” to join in a case already being made.

Both sides could take heart from parts of White's order. He said that deposition testimony and other documents show “it is evident that EII and plaintiffs' counsel were in search of class representatives well before the case was filed.”

But in considering sanctions, White said he must use the “improper purpose” prong of Rule 11, which “considers whether plaintiffs' claims had a colorable basis in law and whether the various iterations of the complaint were well-grounded in fact.”

Although White has granted SeaWorld's motions to dismiss portions of the plaintiffs' claims, he said he “cannot say the plaintiffs did not have a colorable basis for asserting the claims that have since been dismissed.”

White said he was “troubled” by some inconsistencies in one of the plaintiff's deposition testimony regarding who purchased the ticket to SeaWorld. But he said SeaWorld was repeating earlier arguments.

Bottom line: “There were triable issues of fact on most of the issues raised.”

SeaWorld's defense team leader is John Simpson of Norton Rose Fulbright in Washington. He could not be reached immediately for comment.

Covington & Burling's Christine Haskett, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, referred an inquiry to the firm's spokesman, who said by email: “We are pleased with the court's decision and look forward to trying the case.”