Speedy Hearing Sought : Yacht Club Files Appeal to Overturn Loss of Cup

The San Diego Yacht Club filed a notice of appeal Friday, asking that a New York Supreme Court decision awarding the America’s Cup to New Zealander Michael Fay be overturned, a lawyer for the yacht club said.

The SDYC action follows a similar appeal filed Thursday by New York Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams, said Mark Smith, the yacht club lawyer.

No date for a hearing on the appeal has been set by the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court. But Smith said that, because of the importance of the case, he will file a motion next week asking that the court hear it before the end of its summer term in June.

Smith also said he will file a motion asking the court to stay the effect of a March 28 ruling by Judge Carmen Ciparick awarding the Cup to Fay and his Auckland-based Mercury Bay Boating Club. A stay would assure that the SDYC would maintain possession of the Cup until the appeal is decided.

George L. Tompkins Jr., the lawyer representing Fay, said he will oppose the stay motion and will argue that the state attorney general has no right to appeal because Ciparick’s order required no action on the part of the state attorney general. Tompkins said the order requires actions to be taken only by the SDYC, such as the surrender of the Cup.

The state attorney general originally joined the SDYC in its defense of Fay’s suit because of its role as overseer of the public interest in New York public trusts such as the Deed of Gift, the 102-year-old set of rules that govern the Cup. Normally, in cases appealed by the state attorney general, there is an automatic stay.

Smith has said he will base his appeal on the grounds that Ciparick’s decision is inconsistent with her earlier rulings in the case, that her reading of the Deed of Gift is too broad and that she went beyond the intent of the its authors in deciding about the “fairness” of the race.