Frank and Jamie McCourt will continue to debate the ownership of the Dodgers through at least the end of 2011. The couple, whose divorce will settle the question of who owns the Dodgers baseball team, will face trial next spring or summer before Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon.
The McCourts’ marital problems first surfaced in 2009, when the owners of the team announced that they would separate after a long-term marriage. Frank McCourt claimed ownership of 100 percent of the baseball team, while his wife claimed that each spouse owned 50 percent.
When the couple split, Frank fired Jamie from her position of CEO of the Dodgers, and she fired back, filing for divorce and seeking monthly spousal support, also known as alimony. In May 2010, Frank McCourt was ordered to pay $637,000 per month, including $412,000 in monthly mortgage payments on property the couple owned.
At a hearing a few months later in Judge Gordon’s court, Frank McCourt offered a 2004 marital property agreement that the pair signed as proof that he was sole owner of the Dodgers. Jamie McCourt offered a second version of the agreement that did not give Frank sole ownership of the team.
While the case is pending, the Dodgers are in bankruptcy, paying operating expenses with proceeds from a $150 million loan from Major League Baseball. Frank McCourt has said he will trace his ownership of the team to a company he owned before he and Jamie married, making it his separate property. The court will convene next month to set a trial date.
Source: Los Angeles Times, “Final Frank and Jamie McCourt divorce trial? Wait till next year,” Bill Shaikin, Sept. 14, 2011
