Through the tumultuous legal battle that occurred between the NBA and Donald Sterling, a rarely enacted probate provision soon took the foreground for an important legal move. After Sterling’s racial comments and the media attention that it attracted, the NBA immediately began to move towards the sale of the LA Clippers.
After Donald Sterling was fined $2.5 million and banned from the National Basketball Association for life, he originally accepted defeat and agreed to sell the team. After Donald Sterling was seen by two doctors that both stated that he displayed early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, Shelly Sterling, Donald Sterling’s wife, then decided that Donald could not be medically able to be involved in the sale of the team.
Through Shelly Sterling’s bidding of the Clippers, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the team for a record breaking $2 billion.
But many people have been wondering:
How was this sale possible without Sterling’s consent?
Did ownership really lie with Shelly Sterling or was Donald Sterling robbed of his rightful authority over the sale of the team?
After the NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer, Donald Sterling’s attorneys moved quickly to file a petition with a state appeals court in hopes that they could block the sale. The attorneys argued this petition by stating that the Clipper’s success was due to the time of ownership by Sterling and explained the importance of the team to him and just how vital that it was to his happiness that he maintain ownership of the team. The court declined this action. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas had previously allowed Sterling’s wife, Shelly Sterling, to continue with the sale of the Clippers and the allowance had not yet been finalized, therefore Sterling’s attorneys’ appeal could not yet be enacted
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The real issue then turned to a three-week probate trial involving the legality of Shelly Sterling’s authority to sell the team. Even though Shelly Sterling had already signed the team over to Ballmer on May 29th, the legal battle that Donald Sterling’s attorneys were fighting against her forced her to secure a court order that stated that she was in authority to turn over the team to Ballmer.
Shelly Sterling had already removed Donald Sterling as a trustee of the Sterling Family Trust and on behalf of the trust, made the decision to sell. The probate provision that was required to confirm her authority to sell was enacted in the Los Angeles County Probate Court, with the help of Michael Cohen, a probate attorney who has been practicing probate law for the last 35+ years.
This probate provision was pivotal in the court case as it was the final legal move to close the sale. The provision proved once and for all that the LA Clippers rightfully belonged to Shelly Sterling, giving her final authority over the team. Through these hectic court proceedings, the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers was successful and Donald Sterling was thwarted in his legal attempts to steal back the ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers.