Angels Facing Extra Innings on Name Litigation

For the last five years, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team has followed a similar pattern: Success during the regular season followed by failure in the post-season. Four trips to the playoffs, but none to the World Series.

Now it appears the litigation over the team's unusual name is in danger of following a similar path. The Angels won at their 2006 trial, when a jury found the team did not violate its contract with the city of Anaheim by adding Los Angeles to its name. But the Angels' litigation team appears to be slumping before the court of appeal. Lengthy arguments were held Sept. 11 before what sounded like a divided appellate panel, and no ruling has been issued more than two months later. The Angels may ultimately pull out a victory, but at the very least it appears that a routine affirmance is not in the cards.

The litigation has been a cause celebre in Orange County. Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, two city council members, Angels owner Arte Moreno and other team executives personally attended arguments before the Fourth District Court of Appeal's Division Three in Santa Ana.

The city claims the Angels violated a lease agreement the city had negotiated with the team's previous owner, Disney, to include Anaheim in the name. Angels attorney Harry Chamberlain of Buchalter Nemer maintained Anaheim is part of the name, comparing it to other geographically ambiguous team names like the Quad City Angels, a minor league baseball franchise in Davenport, Iowa.

Questions were relatively few during arguments that lasted nearly 90 minutes. Justice Richard Aronson's queries generally seemed sympathetic to the Angels, while Justice David Sills sounded hostile. Justice Kathleen O'Leary didn't say much.

Legal Pad's favorite moment of the argument came when Chamberlain referred to the team as the "Los Angeles Angels." Sills interrupted him: "I thought the name was changed to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. ... Why don't you call it that?"

"I've been looking at newspapers all over the United States for the last six months," Sills added, "and I've yet to see the name Anaheim."

Chamberlain said he was referring to the original Los Angeles Angels franchise of 1960, and noted that, whatever newspapers may call the team, their stories are typically datelined Anaheim.

Sills closed the argument by pleading with both sides to settle. "I would like nothing better than to see two things in the near future: a World Series victory and this case settled without us deciding it," he said, "because we are not the last stop on the train."

So far no settlement has been forthcoming. So it looks like a long post-season for the Angels -- which given their recent record may not be a good thing.

— Scott Graham

Comments

[michael wilson]

Government should stay out of GM, FORD and CHRYSLER business (for bailout) exactly the same way the city of Anaheim should stay out of the business of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Baseball teams are owned by ownership, not governemnts. Arte Moreno has proven to be the very best executive in the game, so let's celebrate his decision as being very good for Southern California and all Los Angeles bedroom communities. In fact, Mr. Moreno should return the team logo and caps to its original colors and design.