Never Rile a Dodger Fan : Rosalind Wyman Sues Law Firm Over Custody of Season Tickets

Some things are worth fighting for.

Front-row box seats behind the Dodger dugout at Dodger Stadium, for instance.

And so Rosalind Wiener Wyman, a former Los Angeles City Council member and well-connected Democratic party activist, Tuesday sued her late husband’s law firm, claiming that it has breached an agreement that would let her buy the box seat tickets she had used until his death in 1973.

But the dispute involves more than just eight choice seats at Dodger Stadium, even in a season where the Dodgers lead their division. Prime seats at local venues are among the biggest perks that employers offer their employees; they are used to wine and dine (or is it beer and hot dog?) big clients; they are passed on from generation to generation, and they have even figured in divorce actions.

“There’s principle involved,” said Wyman, who was instrumental in bringing the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958. She served on the City Council from 1953 to 1965, and at age 22 was the youngest person ever elected to the council. She also served as chair of the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

“One of my biggest and longest and most involved fights was to bring a major league baseball team to this city as an elected official,” she said. “I really feel I made a contribution to my community.”

Wyman’s lawsuit contends that Wyman, Bautzer, Kuchel & Silbert, the current name of the Century City law firm founded by her late husband, Eugene, breached an agreement giving her the opportunity to buy the tickets if the firm no longer wished to purchase them. Wyman said the agreement was broken in 1986 when Frank Rothman, a partner in the firm and former chairman of MGM/UA Entertainment, left Wyman Bautzer and took two of the season tickets with him.

Charles Stern, a partner with Wyman Bautzer, said he had not seen the suit and could not comment on it.

The firm has been negotiating with Wyman for several months, and “I thought we had worked it out to her satisfaction,” he said, declining to elaborate on what the firm had offered her. “I know it’s important to her and we treated it as such. It’s unfortunate that she has gone to this length.”

Rothman also declined to comment on the suit.

Wyman Bautzer has had other problems recently. In April, partner Terry N. Christensen left the entertainment law firm and 12 partners with ownership interest followed him to form Christensen, White, Miller, Fink & Jacobs.

Christensen has long been top legal adviser to financier Kirk Kerkorian and it is not known who will continue to reap the millions of dollars that Kerkorian’s firms spend each year in legal fees. Wyman Bautzer, however, remains one of the city’s larger firms with 125 lawyers.

Firm Paid for Tickets

Rosalind Wyman said that in 1973, she lost the use of the Dodger tickets, which she selected with help from late Dodger owner Walter O’Malley. Nearly nine months after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack, she claimed in the suit, the law firm told her that she must agree within 24 hours to its terms compensating her for her husband’s death or the terms would be revised “to her detriment.”

As part of that settlement, Wyman turned over season tickets to the Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Kings and the Los Angeles Rams, the suit said. The tickets had been in the Wymans’ names but the law firm had paid for them, the suit said.

Wyman learned in 1983 that two of the Dodger tickets had been transferred to Rothman, when he became an officer and director of MGM/UA, but Wyman Bautzer assured her that Rothman was still associated with the firm, the suit claimed.

However, in 1986, Rothman left Wyman Bautzer and was allowed to take his two tickets with him, the suit said. Wyman contends that she is entitled to those two tickets as well as the other six. The lawsuit also seeks attorney’s fees and costs of the suit.

“I just feel it’s right and it’s fair,” said the 57-year-old Wyman, who is still an avid Dodger fan. The lawsuit was filed on her behalf by her 28-year-old son, Robert A. Wyman, who has formed his own Century City law firm.

A Valuable Asset

The Dodgers are extremely careful when changing names on a season ticket account, even requiring the documents in divorce cases to transfer tickets, said Bob Graziano, vice president of finance. “It does happen occasionally where there will be a dispute involving ownership.”

Season tickets are “kind of a valuable asset,” Graziano said. “There’s a lot of a value beyond the face value of the tickets.” The Dodgers have a list of about 1,500 people awaiting openings among the 27,000 season tickets, and that often swells to 3,000 or 4,000 by the end of the season.

Season tickets cost the same as regular tickets. That is, $7 for box seats multiplied by the 81 games per season and $6 for reserved seats. But their intangible value, especially to corporate buyers, is much higher.

Good seats at sporting and cultural events have long been prime corporate dividends for employees and are used to court clients and the media in a casual, social setting.