Court Permits Bid by NFL to Recover Funds in Raider Case

A federal judge decided Monday to permit the National Football League to argue in a new trial that the Los Angeles Raiders should pay the league for moving the team to Los Angeles from Oakland, rather than the league having to pay damages for wrongfully impeding the move.

Raiders attorneys, led by former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, said they were flabbergasted by the ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr. and would appeal it to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hatter’s ruling constituted a new turning point in a convoluted case that has already consumed eight years and millions of dollars in legal fees. In the same proceedings, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and its attorneys last year were paid $29.5 million in damages by the NFL. That payment will not be affected by the latest development.

Antitrust Decision

Five years ago, a federal court jury found that the NFL had violated antitrust laws in seeking to block the Raiders move in 1980 and awarded the Raiders $34.6 million in basic and punitive damages, a sum which, with accrued interest, by now would have reached about $57 million.

But later, the 9th Circuit Court said the $11.5 million in basic damages to the Raiders, before trebling for punitive damages, should be offset by any increased value in the Raider franchise as a result of its relocation in Los Angeles from smaller Oakland. It ordered a new trial on the amount of damages to the Raiders.

At the time, it appeared that the Raiders’ damages could conceivably be reduced to zero, but that there was no way the team could wind up owing the NFL money.

Hatter, by his ruling Monday, opened the way to this possibility. Now, if the NFL could show that the franchise increased in value by more than $11.5 million, it would be entitled to compensation for the difference from the Raiders.

The Hatter ruling also means that the NFL’s attorneys will be permitted to argue, not withstanding the antitrust finding against the league, that the Raiders were in breach of contract with the NFL when they moved the team.

NFL attorney Frank Rothman, in a triumphant mood after Monday’s hearing, said the ruling “gives us a chance. (Raiders owner Al) Davis is now exposed to having to pay us money.”

Four Raiders attorneys who were present were clearly angry.

“It means we’ll be trying a whole new case, if this stands up on appeal,” said Alioto outside the courtroom.

“It would mean the NFL might get (something) good out of a violation of the law.”

Alioto, however, went on to argue that the Raiders’ franchise did not increase in value by moving to Los Angeles because, he said, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission had reneged on its commitments to upgrade the stadium to a level commensurate with other NFL stadiums throughout the country.

This matter is the subject of other litigation that is going on between the Coliseum Commission and the Raiders, with the commission saying the Raiders are in breach of contract and the Raiders saying the Commission is in breach.

On another issue, Hatter deferred for 30 days consideration of whether to order the NFL to pay $8 million in attorneys fees billed the Raiders in the case thus far, pending, he said, more documentation by Alioto of the work his firm has done.