Anaheim Puts on Hold Fight With Angels

After reviewing three legal opinions about the merits of continuing its court fight against the Angels, the Anaheim City Council on Tuesday deferred until next week a decision on whether to proceed.

After Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos twice rejected the city’s request to stop the team from renaming itself to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and ruled city attorneys had “failed to show a reasonable probability” of proving the name change violated the stadium lease, the council quietly requested opinions from other law firms to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the case.

Councilman Richard Chavez declined to discuss those three opinions but said the council received them Tuesday and considered them without committing to either pursuing the case or dropping it. He said the council did not discuss settlement.

“We’ve got a ton of things we need to absorb,” Chavez said. “I’m still optimistic we have a good case, but there’s still a lot more we need to discuss.”

Mayor Curt Pringle said the council would reconsider the issue at its meeting next Tuesday.

“We’ll probably make a decision next week,” Pringle said.

The city has incurred close to $200,000 in legal bills from Rutan and Tucker, the Costa Mesa law firm retained to represent Anaheim. Since a trial might not start for months and might commit the city to a $1-million legal tab to argue a case Polos has ruled is not strong, the council asked for legal advice -- not only from its attorneys, Chavez said, but from three firms besides Rutan and Tucker.

“I have to realize it’s the public’s money,” Chavez said. “But it’s also the taxpayers’ money being lost because our name is not on the team.”

Pringle said he has heard from one constituent urging the city to drop the case -- and hundreds more encouraging the city to fight on.

“I have heard from virtually no one that has suggested we stop,” Pringle said. “I think the public is very focused on this. They can see how this action does look like it’s trying to get around certain technicalities in the language.”

Polos ruled that the Angels are in “technical compliance” with a lease provision that requires the team name to “include the name Anaheim therein.” The city argues the new name deprives Anaheim of the publicity benefits it expected under the lease, in which the city paid $20 million toward stadium renovations and the team adopted the name Anaheim Angels.

In a best-case scenario, the city and the Angels would resolve the lawsuit shortly and Angel owner Arte Moreno would help the city in its bid for an NFL franchise. The city and Moreno each stand to make money from an NFL stadium adjacent to Angel Stadium.

But the NFL has told Anaheim officials the city would not be eliminated from consideration because of an ongoing lawsuit against the Angels, city sources said Tuesday. The NFL also is considering the Coliseum, Rose Bowl and a Carson site.