Acknowledging Legal Precedent

Fri, Mar 25, '05

 

BY CLAIRMONT M. CHUNG

Precedent is a very powerful legal concept and strong enough to end most conflicts. If you allowed ?it? before, you forfeit the right to protest now. Remember this is about contracts. Do not try this with your girlfriends and boyfriends, that?s a crime.

But this conflict among the C&W-seven, WICB, WIPA, Digicel and all the Caribbean people defies solutions. It defies solution because the participants seem reluctant to enforce or acknowledge precedent.

Precedent usually requires a prior legal ruling. All this talk about barring players from having personal endorsement contracts, and certainly not contracts with competitors seems foolish in light of Judge Saunder's ruling on Clause 1K.

Judge Saunders clearly acknowledged the right of individual players to seek personal endorsement contracts. We were not privy to the facts reviewed by Judge Saunders. Perhaps Judge Saunders viewed pictures like the ones of Sarwan posing for Cellink, the Guyana version of Digicel.

(Click on images for larger version)

These pictures are found throughout the 2004-2005 Guyana Phonebook. These pictures are the facts and they show one player with a personal endorsement contract with a 'possible' competitor. From all indications this contract is current and valid. No one tried to sue GT&T the local phone company in Guyana.

A related concept is the implied contract. If you and I entered into a contract and I acted outside the terms of the contract, ultra vires, and you said or did nothing, then those actions become part of the contract. The VB series went ahead because the parties agreed that the differences were not that important. There was no indication that this was a temporary solution. If it was, then WIPA needs to head to Court immediately and enforce precedent.

These photos with Sarwan endorsing GT&T's Cellink predate the VB series and are very public in their display. Digicel knew or should have known and did nothing.

Please. Let's have some cricket between the best players of the two teams. A close look at the pictures shows Sarwan in ?whites?. Another shows him with the WICB logo on his chest and a big smile. He said cheese and GT&T for paid it.