An interesting lawsuit has been filed in a Massachusetts state court by the former agents of 21-year-old Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman --whom the Boston Red Sox have reportedly offered a $15.5 million contract--against his new agents for "stealing" Chapman as a client.
If Athletes Premier International v. Hendricks Sports Management goes to trial, it could pose significant ramifications for agents who encourage baseball players to switch agents (which traditionally has not received legal scrutiny, though the MLPBA, which licenses agents with players on teams' 40 man rosters, regulates that practice). Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press has the story on this lawsuit -- here are several excerpts:
Chapman's original representative sued his current agent in Massachusetts state court on Tuesday, claiming that Hendricks Sports Management illegally lured him away from Athletes Premier International and agent Edwin Mejia. The lawsuit accuses Hendricks of tortious interference and unjust enrichment, claiming that Athletes Premier "invested substantial time and hundreds of thousands of dollars" on Chapman's behalf to help him defect, establish residency in Andorra and begin negotiating with major league teams.
Citing text messages and call logs from a cell phone Mejia provided to the Cuban left-hander, the suit claims that "Hendricks and its employees made material false and disparaging statements to Chapman concerning Athletes Premier and Mejia as well as provided improper enticements to Chapman in order to cause Chapman to terminate his contract with Athletes Premier and sign a contract with Hendricks."
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, the Hendricks agency described its representation of Chapman as "an unexpected and unsolicited opportunity" and called the lawsuit "pure fiction and self delusion."
* * *
The statement said Mejia brought his complaint to the players association "and the union didn't buy it." It also noted that the suit was filed on the same day that Chapman was scheduled to work out for major league clubs in Houston, where the Hendricks brothers are based.
* * *
Stealing clients is a longtime and lucrative practice among some sports agents, who can earn up to 5 percent of salaries reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Inducing someone to break a valid contract — called tortious interference — is illegal, but it depends on what the agreement was between Mejia and the former star of the Cuban national team.
"Generally speaking, players can change agents at their discretion," said Michael McCann, a sports law professor at the Vermont Law School. "There is certainly evidence of agents poaching clients (in cases) that don't result in litigation. Maybe it's unethical; maybe it's wrong; but it happens."
To read the rest of Golen's story, click here. For the lawsuit, click here. This lawsuit might make for an interesting law review/journal note for a law student looking for a topic to write about.
Update 12/16/2009: A lawyer who has represented several prominent MLB players e-mailed me and offers these thoughts:
I am a little surprised that they didn't try to bring it in Florida (where Chapman's agent Rodney Fernandez of Hendricks Brothers is based) - Florida has a "tortuous interference with prospective business opportunity" cause of action that I would find more advantageous in this type of case, rather than a straight tortuous interference with contract. Reasoning being is that per MLBPA regs, all player/agent contracts can be terminable at will (and have a maximum length of 1 year). I would have brought it in Florida - there are enough connections there.
I don't see how this claim, as currently posited, is much different from Speakers of Sport v. Proserv (involving Ivan Rodriguez), which was argued in federal court on a similar theory, and plaintiff agent did not prevail on the basis that the court found that it's a high risk/high reward business (agency), and that statements to the player that are "puffery" do not rise to the level of tortuous interference.
Likewise, there have been a number of agent/agent cases argued in the MLBPA arbitration forum that have held essentially the same thing.
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