Opinion ID: 1227777
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sporting Contests Public Policy Considerations

Text: Courts must be guided by considerations of common sense, justice and fair play when making public policy determinations. (7) In setting forth special criteria for negligent interference with prospective economic advantage in J'Aire Corp. v. Gregory (1979) 24 Cal.3d 799, 804, footnote 1 [157 Cal. Rptr. 407, 598 P.2d 60], we stated: Countervailing public policies may preclude recovery for injury to prospective economic advantage in some cases, such as the strong public policy favoring organized activity by workers. Accordingly, interference with the prospective economic advantage of an employer or business has traditionally not been considered tortious when it results from union activity, including picketing, striking, primary and secondary boycotts or similar activity, that is otherwise lawful and reasonably related to labor conditions. [Citations.] (8a) Similar policy considerations apply here. The courts are not appropriate forums for adjudicating claimed sporting event violations which allegedly resulted in prospective economic loss. Although the economic rewards for engaging in professional sports have grown over the past decades, a sporting event is still a contest. The atmosphere of competition remains predominant despite the potential economic rewards. The regulation of sports conduct heretofore has been delegated to supervising regulatory agencies for each particular sport. Specific rules and regulations exist to provide for penalties for violations; remedies are seldom economic but usually involve sanctioning, within the context of the competition, the violating competitors. Our crowded courts are ill-equipped to decide such specialized matters. The regulatory method for sanctioning or penalizing sports violators has proven relatively successful and is generally accepted. In the instant case, numerous administrative remedies are available through the Board to punish drivers who intentionally or recklessly drive their horses. It seems unnecessary to supplant this system by bringing the owners or harness drivers into the courtroom for a determination of speculative compensatory economic damages. It is the competitive nature of sporting in general, including both strategy and luck, that makes a claim for a lost purse markedly different from a claim for personal injuries. [11] If the tort of interference were recognized in the context of a sporting competition, virtually no such event would take place without a tort claim from some losing competitor seeking to recover his supposed economic loss; a player's every move would be highly scrutinized for possible use in the courtroom. Placing this type of additional pressure on competitors could seriously harm competitive sports. In the specific context of a horseracing event, the physical demands placed on harness drivers attempting to control and maneuver the animals frequently may require jockeying for position. Imprecision is inherent in the maneuvering of these animals and it is impossible to assure that physical contact among the horses will not occur. In fact, the harness racing rules contain provisions that address the nature of the contact which is likely to occur, indicating an awareness of the constant maneuvering required in the sport. [12] To impose liability on drivers for acts which may be a necessary consequence of their jockeying for track position would effectively eliminate the type of intense competition permitted by the rules of racing. We should not sanction moving the arena for sporting competitions from the stadium, boxing ring or horseracing track into the courtroom. In light of these important public policies, we conclude that a cause of action will not lie for prospective economic loss which arises between competitors during a sporting contest. [13] The issue of whether a conspiracy to interfere may give rise to the tort of intentional interference with prospective economic advantage was raised in the Court of Appeal. It concluded that only the conspiracy count stated a valid cause of action for the tort of intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The court determined that the act of conspiring to interfere represents the type of improper motive or means necessary to constitute the tort of intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. According to the court, no such ill-motive can be found in the sort of intentional acts which are naturally a part of athletic competition. But a plot by the driver and others to cause Bat Champ to lose the race both offends public policy and discloses the requisite improper intent to sustain tort recovery. Therefore, the court concluded the conspiracy count satisfies the elements of intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. (9) The Court of Appeal correctly stated that there is no separate tort of civil conspiracy. Rather the conspirators must agree to do some act which is classified as a civil wrong. ( Unruh v. Truck Insurance Exchange (1972) 7 Cal.3d 616, 631 [102 Cal. Rptr. 815, 498 P.2d 1063].) (8b) But we fail to see why the act of competitors conspiring with others (e.g., teammates, friends, coaches, other competitors) to commit an intentional improper play in a sporting competition is so different in kind from the commission of that act by a competitor acting on his own. It would become impossible to draw a distinction between behavior that is sufficient to justify liability, i.e., a conspiracy, and behavior that is excusable as being committed in the heat of competition, i.e., fair play. Further, the fact that a conspiracy exists does not affect the lack of any reasonable probability that economic gain would have been realized. We therefore conclude that even conspiracies formed between competitors, or between competitors and noncompetitors, do not justify liability for intentional interference with prospective economic advantage in the sports context. [14]