Pastorini Awarded $450,000 : Appeals Court Says Raiders Have to Pay Former Quarterback

The Raiders must pay former quarterback Dan Pastorini $450,000 as part of a guaranteed contract, even though Pastorini made even more money once the Raiders waived him, a state Court of Appeal ruled Monday.

The court ruled that Pastorini was entitled to the money because when the Raiders traded for him in 1980, the team assumed the contract he had signed with the Houston Oilers.

That deal provided that Pastorini would receive $150,000 a year for each of the three years left on his Oiler contract--and made no exception for other money he might earn elsewhere.

In ordering the payment, appellate court Justice Betty Barry-Deal, writing for the three-judge panel, pointed to Pastorini’s contract, which said he would be paid even if he played poorly or did not play at all.

“We cannot agree with the Raiders’ contention that Pastorini was unjustly enriched and that the award therefore violates public policy,” Barry-Deal wrote. “The contract guaranteed Pastorini’s salary even if his skill or performance was unsatisfactory.”

The Raiders waived Pastorini shortly after he joined the team, and he went to the Rams and later the Philadelphia Eagles. During the three years he played for the Rams and Eagles, he was paid $505,000.

Meanwhile, the Raiders refused to pay on the original contract, contending that the money paid to Pastorini by the Rams and Eagles more than offset the money owed him by the Raiders.

Pastorini filed a grievance with the National Football League and won before an arbitrator. A Superior Court in San Francisco upheld the arbitrator’s decision--as did the Court of Appeal in its ruling Monday.

In the hearing before the arbitrator, the NFL, which joined in the case on the Raiders’ side, contended such double-dipping violated what was described by a league official as an unwritten policy.

Raider attorney R. Mac Prout said he was uncertain whether the club would appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

He added that team owners already have been asking for new language in so-called guaranteed contracts, saying that any salary earned by a player who has been waived will be subtracted from the guaranteed payments.

Pastorini’s attorney could not be reached. Pastorini retired in 1984 after 13 years in the NFL and now is a drag-racing driver.