Opening day has come and gone in Milwaukee, as one of the Brewer’s National League Rivals begins a new baseball season with its ownership in doubt because of a prolonged divorce. Although many couples struggle to properly divide their assets during a divorce, few need to worry about an asset as valuable as a professional baseball team during the property division settlement proceedings. However, Jamie and Frank McCourt, joint owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, are doing exactly that as the Dodgers themselves enter a second season without settled ownership.
Requests from both Jamie and Frank’s attorneys resulted in the postponement of a hearing originally scheduled for April 11. Jamie McCourt is asking that Frank be required to provide her with all of the Dodgers’ financial documentation regarding the teams’ business operations.
The new hearing date is scheduled one month later on May 11. The change will give Frank and Jamie additional time to negotiate the complex property division agreement that could finally end their divorce proceedings, which began in late 2009.
In December, Judge Scott Gordon of the Los Angeles Superior Court threw out an agreement that would have given sole team ownership to Frank McCourt. Jamie McCourt took this decision to mean that she was a half-owner of the team.
At that point, Frank McCourt’s attorneys said that he would pursue a second trial to make the Dodgers his separate property, while Jamie McCourt’s attorneys said that she’d create an investment group to purchase Frank’s interest in the Dodgers. As of the present date, neither party has followed through with these stated intentions, and their attorneys have declined to comment on the negotiations since March 2 when the pair met to discuss the settlement.
Source: Los Angeles Times, “Frank and Jamie McCourt working quietly on a settlement,” Bill Shaikin, 3/29/2011
