Senators Threaten to Sue Yashin

Update: Senators Threaten Suit Against Yashin

Team may claim breach and contract and money damages

Ottawa, September 7, 1999 -- Things are heating up on the Yashin front.

The Ottawa Senators General Manager said that the team may sue Alexei Yashin, who has refused to report to training camp unless his contract is renegotiated. The Ottawa Citizen reports that a breach of contract claim would involve damages for his failure to fulfill his obligations.

If such a suit is instituted, it would be a rarity in professional sports. First, lawsuits such as this come as a last resort, when there is no realistic hope that the player would want to play or if the team has no desire to renegotiate the contract. Apparently both of these circumstances are met. While such suits involving money for breach of contract work well in cases of disputes of goods, they do not work as well in personal services.

Speculative Calculations

Accepting the fact that the player's anger at such a suit would preclude him from playing effectively even if and the team wished him to return to fulfill his contractual obligations, the calculation of money in such a case is difficult to determine. The Senators GM was quoted as saying that the amount of damages "may become more clear as the season is completed." That may not be necessarily so.

At the outset, Ottawa is not paying the player, thereby saving money. The contract is for all practical purposes rescinded, unless some specific guarantees are mentioned. If the team suffers attendance declines because of Yashin's departure, that could be a basis for consideration, except that in contract law damages must be "foreseeable" and not "speculative." Evidence connecting his breach with attendance loss or with lack of success of the team (in not making the playoffs, for example) would be difficult to show. If, however, ticketholders sued the team and won, then a case can be made that Yashin would have to reimburse the team (known in legal parlance as indemnification) for the amount paid to the fans.

It's too early to say whether such an event would occur. But if the teams sues for money, it could set a standard in future cases.