Ownership update

[Zone034life]

ATLANTA HAWKS OWNERSHIP FEUD

Belkin buyout ruling nixed by Md. court

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 09/11/07

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Tuesday tossed out last year's lower court rulings that Steve Belkin is entitled to buy out his fellow Hawks-Thrashers owners at cost and take over the teams.

The appellate court remanded the case to the Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court for further proceedings. The dispute stems from an August 2005 contract under which Belkin was to sell his stake in the teams to the other owners –- principally Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, Michael Gearon and Rutherford Seydel –- for a price to be set by a series of appraisals.

When the buyout process broke down, Belkin filed suit, eventually asking the circuit court to rule that he was entitled to buy out the other owners at cost because they allegedly had missed a series of deadlines to buy him out.

The appellate court Tuesday vacated the circuit court's June 14, 2006, order, which had given Belkin the right to buy out the other owners. The appellate court also overturned the circuit court's Feb. 24, 2006 order, which had given Belkin the right to hire the second appraiser despite having hired the first. The circuit court ruled that the 2005 contract was unambiguous on the subject of who should hire the second appraiser, but the appellate court disagreed, saying the contract "does not provide for how the parties were to proceed if, as here, both parties noted a timely objection" to the first appraisal.

[Swatguy]

I say I say Hallelujah.

[DJ_Money]

That's certainly great news.

Doesn't put us any closer to a resolution, but at least we know Belkin won't be taking over any time soon.

I'll leave it to some of our more legally educated posters to interpret, but it seems we're back to square one with the appraisal process, no?

[coachx]

Boooooooooooooooo Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!

It is not he knock out upper cut.....but a good little jab to Belkin is better then nothing. He seemed to have run every court battle up till now. Now the scales have turned back in favor of the AS.

[DJlaysitup]

That's good news! even though I'm not a Belkin hater per se'....it wouldn't be fair for him to be able to buy the others out at cost.

However, it looks like the case has been remanded back to the circuit court that ruled for Belkin in the first place.

It sounds like this is still going to be a long, drawn out case though....unless the sides are willing to compromise in some way.

(Gotta love the Hawks...you get a regular season...the lottery and the draft are always exciting...and a court case/soap opera to boot!)

[Swatguy]

Quote:

---

That's certainly great news.

Doesn't put us any closer to a resolution, but at least we know Belkin won't be taking over any time soon.

I'll leave it to some of our more legally educated posters to interpret, but it seems we're back to square one with the appraisal process, no?

---

That is precisely what it reads to me. Back to the done "first" appraisal. Back to the court to decide who orders the second appraisal.

However, interestingly the first appraisal is now out-dated and cannot be valid.

This means the first appraisal is now the next one. Hopefull with so much time and money already spent, Belkin will capitulate and yield to the first (as well as the others) now new appraisal.

[scottt]

I have not been able to find the opinion online. I intend to give it a read and then comment. One initial thought, however, is that since the appeals court vacated the order, we no longer may be stuck with contract restrictions (ie: no longer than 4 years...etc.) Perhaps now that Belkin no longer has veto power that we can get Josh locked up. More later.

[AnakinJoe]

What impact does this have to last summer's mandate not to sign players to 5 year deals nor exceed the salary cap? Will this open the door to Smith (and Hossa on the Thrashers side) getting their 5-year extensions? At a minimum, we need to be able to make an appropriate offer to extend our current players, even if we won't pursue new ones.

[pimp]

Quote:

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I have not been able to find the opinion online. I intend to give it a read and then comment. One initial thought, however, is that since the appeals court vacated the order, we no longer may be stuck with contract restrictions (ie: no longer than 4 years...etc.) Perhaps now that Belkin no longer has veto power that we can get Josh locked up. More later.

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That a very interesting point Scottt.

I hope your right.

[AHF]

Quote:

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I have not been able to find the opinion online. I intend to give it a read and then comment. One initial thought, however, is that since the appeals court vacated the order, we no longer may be stuck with contract restrictions (ie: no longer than 4 years...etc.) Perhaps now that Belkin no longer has veto power that we can get Josh locked up. More later.

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I didn't find anything on here under either the reported or unreported decisions. Can you think of a better source?

http://www.courts.state.md.us/cosappeals/

[Gangstur]

The court of Special Appeals Rulings should be available on this page:

http://mdcourts.gov/cgi-bin/indexlist.pl?c...e&submit=Submit

However, they are only updated to yesterday. Hopefully it gets posted sometime in the next day or so. You'd think the AJC could just PDF what ever copy they have.

This all but paves the way for the Spirit to cut Belkin a check and be done with him. I hope the Spirit has deep enough pockets to pay him off and still run the team.....

[AHF]

Quote:

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The court of Special Appeals Rulings should be available on this page:

http://mdcourts.gov/cgi-bin/indexlist.pl?c...e&submit=Submit

However, they are only updated to yesterday. Hopefully it gets posted sometime in the next day or so. You'd think the AJC could just PDF what ever copy they have.

This all but paves the way for the Spirit to cut Belkin a check and be done with him. I hope the Spirit has deep enough pockets to pay him off and still run the team.....

---

If you follow the address I posted for the link for reported decisions, you can see the reported opinions from today (2 of them so far). A separate link for unreported decisions also lists about 12 from today but none involving the ASG or Belkin (at least so far).

It is possible the Court has not released its formal opinion yet but has notified the parties of its decisions. State courts (usually at the trial court level) frequently get the winning party to write the order for the Court.

[WraithSentinel]

Does this mean we can sign Josh Smith and any other FA to any deal now without this a-holes approval?

[Swatguy]

Quote:

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The court of Special Appeals Rulings should be available on this page:

http://mdcourts.gov/cgi-bin/indexlist.pl?c...e&submit=Submit

However, they are only updated to yesterday. Hopefully it gets posted sometime in the next day or so. You'd think the AJC could just PDF what ever copy they have.

This all but paves the way for the Spirit to cut Belkin a check and be done with him. I hope the Spirit has deep enough pockets to pay him off and still run the team.....

---

Perhaps Ted or someone will step-up and invest the big money to settle this matter. I have often wondered why Ted didn't follow his Son-in-Law as a co-owner from jump street. If he had they would not have needed/invited Belkin.

[WraithSentinel]

Awhile back it was said the team had someone deep pockets ready to join the ownership team. Perhaps he will help out. Plus Wilkins has been waiting to be part of the team. We already got enough owners. It look like there will be even more.

[Swatguy]

Quote:

---

I have not been able to find the opinion online. I intend to give it a read and then comment. One initial thought, however, is that since the appeals court vacated the order, we no longer may be stuck with contract restrictions (ie: no longer than 4 years...etc.) Perhaps now that Belkin no longer has veto power that we can get Josh locked up. More later.

---

Vacated does mean it reverts to before the appraisal proceedures. In essence, unless Belkin moves to block ASG to menuever, ASG can do whatever.

I expect Belkin to appeal to the courts to restrict immediately. Followed by quick negotiation for settlement. If Belkin wants to take his profits and Audi, it can move quickly. ASG already has Sterns blessings, it is basically about the payoff now.

[Gangstur]

Looks like it showed up on the Unreported Cases list.

http://www.courts.state.md.us/unreported_o...unreported.html

So much for transparency in the system.

[KB21]

Yes!!

I think this at least cracks the door open for them to get Josh Smith's extension done.

[OGRat]

Which one on the list are you saying is it?

[Lascar78]

It's HTPA v Belkin although they misspelled it Belikin. HTPA is the Atlanta/Washington group.

Here's hoping the rest of the process goes faster. At this point I just hope everything is final by the end of this coming season.

This looks very good at this point, but I'm a little weary of it heading back to the original court.