America's Cup- Supreme Court decisions just announced in New York

by Richard Gladwell on 31 Oct 2009 The Decisions of the New York Supreme Court have been announced in response to several Motions pleace before the Court, and heard on 27 October.

The decisions confirm rather than elaborate on the verbal decisions handed down from the Bench.

All were handwritten by Justice Shirley Kornreich and stated that they were as determined in Court and referred to the general Transcript of that hearing.

The vexed issue was not answered as to whether Societe Nautique de Geneve could nominate a venue outside Valencia, in the Southern Hemisphere, without having to meet the requirement of Justice Herman Cahn's earlier decision which prescribed that the match be held on 8 February 2010 and that SNG, as Defender, were required to name their chosen venue six months prior to that date.

The announcement of Ras al-Khaimah was made on 6 August 2009. In a Decision given during the course of a Hearing on 27 October, Justice Shirley Kornreich determined that the UAE venue did not comply with the requirements of the Deed of Gift for the America's Cup.

It is believed that the SNG were seeking some clarity from the Court on their options regarding a venue, however this has not been given. The simple reason for this answer not being given would seem to be that the question was never formally asked by SNG, and therefore could not be answered by the Court.

Instead of providing clarity on this point, it would seem that Justice Kornreich has left it for SNG to read the Deed. However given that they are now within 100 days of the prescribed date of the Match, and have not named a venue that complies with the requirements of the Deed of Gift, and Court decisions, then the risk of a forfeit has to be a strong possibility if the next named venue is anywhere other than Valencia, and that Southern Hemisphere venue is held to be invalid on a subsequent challenge to the Court.

Further legal moves are expected, by the Defender, one of which could be call for a telephone conference between the parties and the Court to provide an interpretation of the Deed's provisions in this regard. Such a conference would probably be at the behest of Societe Nautique de Geneve.

On the other Motions, several were decided as Moot, meaning in effect they had been overtaken by subsequent events. On the Rules motions of measurement of Load Water Line, no decision has yet been given, the decision was confirmed as handed down in the Hearing that the length could not be exceeded, but did not have to match the dimensions in the Notice of Challenge.

See http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/New-York-Supreme-Court-appoints-its-own-Americas-Cup-Jury/62770!later_story_for_an_update_on_this_situation.