Pulling the Rug Out from Under them

It’s the lease, stupid!

As the City of Seattle’s case against the Professional Basketball Club starts to pick up steam as it races toward the court date we are presented with the final motions that each side presents to argue what should, or should not be included in the case. These motions are presented to the judge to rule on (in limine).

Greg Johns of the Seattle PI has a good summary (here)

With both parties filing “motions of limine” at the final deadline requesting the court to prohibit certain testimonies, Judge Marsha Pechman now has until June 6 to determine which motions she grants for the June 16 trial.

. . .

Among the Sonics’ primary charges is that the city’s lawsuit is part of an orchestrated plan to force Clay Bennett’s ownership group into an untenable money-losing situation in Seattle for the final years of its lease.

The team’s lawyers have said the city developed a “Machiavellian plan” intended to bleed Bennett’s Pro Basketball Club financially and force a sale to an ownership group led by Microsoft’s Ballmer and Seattle developer Matt Griffin.

If allowed by Pechman, this week’s motion would strike at the core of that defense strategy.

The motion argues that the city has a right to enforce its lease, there is nothing wrong with having discussions with a local group interested in bringing an NBA franchise to a renovated KeyArena, and therefore, all the Ballmer-related evidence is irrelevant and inadmissible.

“PBC cannot credibly attack the City’s motives, as PBC’s motives were the same — to bring the benefits of an NBA team to its members’ hometown of Oklahoma City,” the motion states. “The difference is that PBC is trying to benefit Oklahoma City by breaching its Lease. The city is trying to benefit Seattle by enforcing the Lease.”

This case started out with just the city filing a fairly broad argument, in October of 2007, after Clay Bennett demanded arbitration in September of 2007 to terminate the lease and leave. The case trundled along, arbitration was denied (no shock there), the case was formed in February of 2008. A lot happened though April 22, 2008, when Howard Schultz filed his case. Then the scope changed for the city, limiting it to just the lease.
Originally posted at http://sonicscentral.com/

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

“Boo hoo” back to you Clay Bennett

Greg Johns in the Seattle PI has an interesting story on the Sonics, Kevin Durant should click right HERE to read the whole story. Clay has a message for you.

Among the hundreds of thousands of words transcribed on 470 pages of depositions taken by lawyers for the upcoming trial between the city of Seattle and the Sonics’ ownership group over the team’s KeyArena lease, there are two Clay Bennett would surely love to take back.

Boo hoo.

In an e-mail to Oklahoma-based public relations consultant Brent Gooden after hearing some of the Sonics players were upset about the prospect of moving the franchise to Oklahoma City, Bennett responded by writing, “Boo hoo,” according to a line of questioning by city of Seattle attorney Jeff Johnson.

To which Gooden replied, “Great response. I would play wherever for half of the lowest paid player on the team.”

While Bennett’s own deposition is almost entirely redacted in the documents released last week via a public-records request, this particular e-mail exchange was contained in Gooden’s deposition.

Under questioning from Johnson, Gooden said he remembered that correspondence with Bennett and then tried to explain his own response.

Get ready!

The plaintiffs (ths city) pretrial statements were due on 5/23/2008, and the defendant (the alleged two faced liars from Oklahoma City) pretrial statement is due 5/29/2008, accourding to the schedule set back in April.

On 5/21/2008 the judge had ruled/filed a statement (Minute Order) that said ALL motions to admit or suppress evidence are due on 5/27/2008, that would be tomorrow, Tuesday. This is Motion in limine. I thought we should learn something along the way to recovering our team.

By the end of the week the trial statements will be filed and all the stuff that can be used will be known by both sides.

Originally posted at http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=1920

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone