Pro Action Goes On in Courts

The promise of a refund and “Kings dollars” doesn’t console you during the NHL lockout? Still angry about the baseball strike, even after watching Ken Burns’ “Baseball” epic?

Some fans aren’t taking these affronts sitting down anymore. They have headed for an attorney’s office, where they have begun legal action against those who have deprived them of their favorite sports.

Los Angeles attorney Philip Aidikoff, a native Brooklynite who boasts of having attended the 1955 World Series, said Monday he had filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Dodger season-ticket holder William Schellbach and all other season-ticket holders.

The suit, filed last Thursday, asks for refunds--plus interest--for all games and for parking fees this season, claiming the Dodgers did not provide fans a “meaningful season that culminated in playoffs and the World Series. . . . What they got was a season of exhibition games because there were no playoffs and no World Series and the (acting) commissioner (Bud Selig) declared for record-keeping purposes, there were no National or American League champions.”

In Toronto, Maple Leaf season-ticket holder Alvin Singer filed a suit in Ontario Court asking a judge to order the NHL and the NHL Players Assn. back to the bargaining table.

The twist is that Singer didn’t ask for damages. The Toronto Star reported that Singer simply wanted to force the principals to resume negotiations. He said neither side has bargained in good faith because, “negotiating-bargaining sessions between the defendants have become briefer and briefer, and the pauses have become lengthier and lengthier.”

A league spokesman said he was aware of the suit, but noted that Commissioner Gary Bettman had met Monday with Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA.

Dodger spokesman Jay Lucas said he had heard of Aidikoff’s suit but said the club had not been served with legal papers. Aidikoff said he expected them to be served shortly.

Aidikoff, a civil litigator with the firm of Aidikoff and Kesluk, said he was asked by friends to file the suit.

“Fans had a contract with the owners and the owners breached that contract,” he said.

Melody S. Warren, a fan of the Kansas City Royals, filed a similar suit against the club last Thursday.