Sports Report

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment in favor of an agency on claims by client William Webb over the agency's failure to procure Webb a position as baseball director at Fox Sports or Madison Square Garden Networks. Webb v. Robert Lewis Rosen Associates Ltd. (RLR), 04-4147. William Webb's suit alleged, among other things, breach of contract, fraudulent inducement and breach of fiduciary duty. The appeals court noted, in its unpublished opinion, that though a letter from RLR to Fox had mentioned another RLR client as qualified for the position Webb sought, the letter also stated the other client was unavailable and that Webb was “the finest baseball director in America today.” Both the agency and the letter's recipient at Fox had confirmed in testimony that the correspondence indeed touted Webb as the only viable candidate. The appeals court further found that “any allegations of disloyalty or unjust enrichment accruing after the parties' 1997 extension [of the agent] agreement would, pursuant to the express terms of that document, have been subject to arbitration and, thus, not properly the subject of litigation in the district court. … [B]ecause Webb failed to pursue in arbitration claims for unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty based on defendants' allegedly disloyal 1999 conduct, we conclude that he waived the right to raise them in the district court.”

Broadcasting

The Supreme Court of New York, New York County, decided that SportsChannel Associates could proceed with a breach-of-contract claim alleging that defendant Sterling Mets had entered into an agreement to license the TV rights to New York Mets games to a third party while an agreement for those rights with SportsChannel was in effect. SportsChannel Assocs. v. Sterling Mets L.P., 603548/04. However, the trial court dismissed SportsChannel's claim of breach of a “first negotiation/first refusal” clause in the agreement between the plaintiff and Sterling Mets, noting that once Sterling “exercised its [buyout] Option [in its agreement with SportsChannel], Sterling could immediately start negotiating with third parties. SportsChannel's exclusive negotiation rights were extinguished in May 2004 when Sterling delivered an early termination notice [that SportsChannel would lose the TV rights after the 2005 baseball season] and paid SportsChannel $54 million. … The Buyout Provision states that the right to terminate the Contract is 'exercised' by delivering written notice and paying the early termination fee. Read together, the two provisions mean that, by exercising the Option, Sterling immediately terminated SportsChannel's specific rights under the [first negotiation/first refusal] Provisions, but caused the rights under its Contract as a whole to terminate on a future date.”

Defamation