Judge orders Glendale to make quarterly payment to Coyotes
Maricopa County Superior Court judge Dawn Bergin on Monday ordered the City of Glendale to make its final, fiscal-year quarterly payment of $3.75 million to the Arizona Coyotes. The payment is due Wednesday.
Bergin denied the city's motion to withhold the payment or put it in an escrow account while its ongoing contract dispute with the Coyotes makes its way through the courts.
To protect the city in the event it wins the case, Bergin also ordered the Coyotes to increase their required bond from $250,000 to $1 million.
"We are pleased with the ruling and will continue to pursue our rights," Coyotes president, CEO and co-owner Anthony LeBlanc said.
Glendale acting city manager Dick Bowers also expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
"We've said all along that our primary obligation is to our citizens," Bowers said. "The judge's ruling enforcing an increase in the bond payment is an assurance for our taxpayers that we're looking out for their best interests."
KTAR legal analyst Monica Lindstrom attended the hearing and called the ruling a win-win, while acknowledging the Coyotes got more from the ruling than Glendale did.
"I thought it was very reasonable that the city requested putting the payment into escrow," Lindstrom. "I thought the judge would do that because it's the safest avenue for everybody.
"But the judge was very concerned with the city's contention that it did not have to pay for services already rendered. It was a big issue for her, so she did a little less than splitting the baby."
While the ruling appeared to tilt in the Coyotes' favor, Lindstrom said Bergin gave no indication of which way she is leaning on merits of each side's strength of the case.
"There are no Arizona cases dealing with this law so there is nothing on point," Lindstrom said. "It sounds like the decision she will ultimately make, she will have to make herself.
"Other cases from other jurisdictions are persuasive but not mandatory. If we had an Arizona Supreme Court case she would have to follow that, but we do not."
The Glendale City Council voted June 10 to void its 15-year, $225 million arena lease and management agreement with the Coyotes.
Arizona Revised Statute 38-511 allows a government entity to end a contract with another party if an employee who was "significantly involved in initiating, negotiating, securing, drafting or creating the contract" goes to work for the other party in the agreement.
The two sides will begin depositions July 7. The first evidentiary hearing is set for July 31.
"The judge asked both parties if they wanted the preliminary injunction hearing to be on the merits of the case, but they haven't decided yet," Lindstrom said. "The preliminary hearing might decide everything if all the parties want it to."
Even if that happens, Lindstrom said the fact that there is no case law (precedent) in Arizona will likely lead whichever side loses to appeal its case, dragging things out in the courts an indefinite period of time.
As she has stated before, Lindstrom believes the case will be decided by the interpretation of the wording in the statute, and whether Tindall and Frisoni's involvement rises to that level.
"It really seems to be coming down to the words "significantly involved," she said.