Court Has Last Word in Spelling Bee: Boy Loses

“As for the judgment of the trial court,” appellate Judge Arthur Gilbert ruled, “we’ll spell it out: A-F-F-I-R-M-E-D.”

Gilbert, of the 2nd District state Court of Appeal, on Wednesday was upholding a lower court’s decision against Leonard McDonald of Thousand Oaks, who contended that his son was robbed of a spelling bee championship.

McDonald claimed that his son, Gavin, then 13, lost the 1987 Ventura County Spelling Bee because officials of the sponsoring Ventura Star Free Press allowed two students from Los Altos School in Camarillo to advance to the spell-off instead of just one.

In the Camarillo contest, Los Altos student Victor Wang had spelled H-O-R-S-Y and Steven Chen had spelled it H-O-R-S-E-Y.

Judges ruled that Steven won, but Star Free Press officials said an unacceptable dictionary had been used. Because Webster’s Third New International Dictionary deemed both spellings correct, a tie was declared. Both Victor and Steven were allowed to go to the spell-off.

Steven went on to compete against Gavin McDonald in the countywide competition, beating him in the 27th round.

Young McDonald’s father argued in his suit that Steven should not have been allowed to compete in the county finals. He asked for $2 million in damages, naming the newspaper, the paper’s editor at the time and Scripps Howard Newspapers, which conducts the national spell-offs in Washington.

The suit alleged that the unfair treatment caused Gavin to lose his standing in the community and suffer “humiliation, indignity, grief, fright and mental anguish.”

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Yegan dismissed the case in November, 1987. The McDonalds appealed.

In upholding Yegan’s action, appellate Judge Gilbert had a few things to say about frivolous lawsuits. He pointed out that the reason Gavin lost was that he finally misspelled a word.

Gavin, who placed first in the 1986 county competition, but came in second in 1987, “has much to be proud of,” Gilbert wrote. “He participated in a spelling bee that challenged the powers of memory and concentration . . . It is this lawsuit that is trivial.”

He said the case was “so lacking in merit” that he considered imposing sanctions against Gavin’s attorney, J. N. Wiedman, of Encino.

The latter declined comment, saying he had not yet seen the judge’s ruling.

Nor could officials at the Star Free Press be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.