Oakland Raiders v. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Inc.

I respectfully dissent. Unlike the majority, I believe the trial court properly denied the motions of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (OACC) for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) on the negligent misrepresentation (fraud) count. The trial court properly submitted to the jury, as a question of fact, the issue of whether the Oakland Raiders (Raiders) had waived its claim of fraud, and correctly instructed on this issue as one of intentional relinquishment. And there is substantial evidence to support the jury’s finding that the Raiders did not waive this claim.

More generally, I believe that the majority’s approach to the doctrine of implied waiver—by basing that doctrine on estoppel while downplaying intent—is misguided. That approach muddles the law in this area. And that muddle will now make it easier to find that a party has waived a fraud claim as a matter of law, thereby harming many who may actually have been defrauded. The majority concludes that the doctrine of implied waiver as to a fraud claim is “better understood as an application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel than ‘waiver’ in the traditional sense, which generally rests on a party’s intent.”…

A jury awarded plaintiff Oakland Raiders, a California limited partnership (the Raiders) $34.2 million in damages against defendant Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Inc., a California nonprofit corporation (OACC) on the Raiders’ claim for negligent misrepresentation regarding the status of season ticket sales, representations that were allegedly made to induce the team to leave Los Angeles and sign a long-term contract to play at their former home in Oakland. The size of the jury award was only a fraction of the amount of compensatory damages the Raiders had sought. The jury also found that OACC had breached its implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in negotiating its long-term contract with the Raiders, but that the Raiders had suffered no damage as a result. The trial court denied the Raiders’ posttrial motion for attorney fees. Both sides appeal from the ensuing judgment and the Raiders appeal from the order denying them attorney fees.

For the reasons that follow, we shall conclude that OACC’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) on the fraud count was meritorious and should have been granted.

In an unpublished portion of this opinion, we…

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

A jury awarded plaintiff Oakland Raiders, a California limited partnership (the Raiders) $34.2 million in damages against defendant Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Inc., a California nonprofit corporation (OACC) on the Raiders' claim for negligent misrepresentation regarding the status of season ticket sales, representations that were allegedly made to induce the team to leave Los Angeles and sign a long-term contract to play at their former home in Oakland. The size of the jury award was only a fraction of the amount of compensatory damages the Raiders had sought. The jury also found that OACC had breached its implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in negotiating its long-term contract with the Raiders, but that the Raiders had suffered no damage as a result. The trial court denied the Raiders' posttrial motion for attorney fees. Both sides appeal from the ensuing judgment and the Raiders appeal from the order denying them attorney fees.

For the reasons that follow, we shall conclude that OACC's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) on the fraud count was meritorious and should have been granted.

In an…