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Timeline for Spirit ownership case
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/11/07
THE STORY SO FAR
Hawks-Thrashers ownership group Atlanta Spirit has been tangled
in a legal quagmire for more than two years. A replay of the
twists and turns:
-- July 30, 2005: The feud erupts when part-owner Steve Belkin
makes it clear that he plans to use his power as the Hawks' NBA
governor to block a proposed trade with the Phoenix Suns for
guard Joe Johnson. Belkin contends the Hawks would be giving up
too much. The other owners back the trade. The NBA requires each
team's governor to sign off on trades.
-- July 31, 2005: Part-owner Michael Gearon Jr. warns Belkin in
an e-mail that the Hawks intend to go through with the trade and
"if you take any action as NBA governor to interfere ... you will
be removed."
-- Aug. 4, 2005: Belkin gets a restraining order against his
fellow owners — Michael Gearon Sr., Michael Gearon Jr., Bruce
Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, Rutherford Seydel, Todd Foreman and Beau
Turner — from a Boston court, temporarily prohibiting them from
removing him as governor.
-- Aug. 6, 2005: Gearon Sr. says the central issue is Belkin's
desire to operate the teams "on the cheap." Belkin denies this.
-- Aug. 9, 2005: Before a court hearing, Hawks general manager
Billy Knight famously refuses to shake Belkin's hand. The Boston
court issues a preliminary injunction that prohibits the other
owners from removing Belkin as governor.
-- Aug. 11, 2005: NBA commissioner David Stern files an affidavit
saying Belkin's partners have grounds to remove him and that
Stern would approve the action.
-- Aug. 12, 2005: After considering Stern's affidavit, the Boston
court lifts the injunction and says the other owners can remove
Belkin as governor with five business days' notice.
-- Aug. 19, 2005: On the day the other owners are free to remove
him as governor, Belkin resigns the position and signs a contract
to sell his 30 percent stake in the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips
Arena to his partners for a price to be set by a series of up to
three appraisals. The Hawks immediately complete the Johnson trade.
-- Nov. 23, 2005: The first appraisal report is completed.
Citigroup Private Bank values Belkin's 30 percent stake at $88
million. Belkin files a new lawsuit against his partners in
Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court, alleging "a concerted
campaign . . . to pay substantially less than fair market value"
for his stake. In subsequent court filings, Belkin calls the
Citigroup appraisal "grossly undervalued" and the other owners,
noting Belkin's $11.7 million investment, call it "breathtakingly
generous."
-- Dec. 2005-Feb. 2006: A series of court filings reveal a buyout
process in disarray. Belkin claims he has the right to select the
second appraiser because he objected fastest to the results of
the first — one minute after receiving the report. The other
owners claim they have the right to select the second appraiser
because Belkin hired the first and objected to its results before
they received the report. (The August 2005 contract doesn't say
who is entitled to pick the second appraiser if both sides object
to the first.) Belkin proceeds to hire a second appraiser, J. P.
Morgan Securities, which values his stake at $140 million. The
other owners say the J. P. Morgan appraisal is invalid because of
the unresolved dispute over Belkin's right to choose the appraiser.
-- Feb. 24, 2006: Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court Judge
Eric Johnson rules that Belkin unambiguously had the right to
choose the second appraiser because he objected fastest to the
results of the first.
-- March 2006: More court filings. Belkin argues that the logical
extension of the Feb. 24 ruling is that his partners missed
deadlines to pay him the amount of the second appraisal (or to
seek a third appraisal) and that he thus he is entitled, under
the August 2005 contract, to buy them out at cost. The other
side counters that Belkin's "audacious" scenario "would result
in nothing less than judicially sanctioned theft" of the teams.
-- June 14, 2006: Johnson rules that Belkin is, indeed, entitled
to buy out his partners at cost. The other owners vow to appeal.
-- July 6, 2006: Johnson issues a stay of his ruling while it is
appealed.
-- July 11, 2006: As a condition of the stay, the feuding owners
agree that the Hawks and Thrashers will not sign players to
contracts of longer than four years during the appeals process.
-- March 2, 2007: A three-judge panel of Maryland's Court of
Special Appeals hears arguments in the case. Baltimore attorney
James Shea, representing the non-Belkin owners, argues that
Johnson's rulings should be reversed because, among other
reasons, they were made without benefit of a full trial or full
discovery to sort out material factual disputes. In their
questioning of attorneys, the appellate judges probe possible
ambiguities in the August 2005 buyout contract and possible
inconsistencies in the appraisal process.
-- Sept. 11, 2007: The Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed
the circuit court's rulings of Feb. 24, 2006, and June 14, 2006.
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/2007/09/11/
spirittime_0912.html
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