"As we have stated, we recognize that most pretrial appeals are not successful, but the Anaheim City Council feels that this decision merits further review," said Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. "The City must pursue every available legal means to obtain the benefits that were promised to the people of Anaheim under the contract in 1996."

Andrew J. Guilford, who has been retained to serve as co-counsel for the City in the case along with Mike Rubin, filed the writ at the Court of Appeal. 

"Names and reputations take time to build, but are destroyed in an instant...The contract that was to bring fame to Anaheim will instead bring shame," offers Guilford in the appellate papers. Of the proposed new name of the franchise, he states, "Anaheim will be dumped from the name as abruptly as David Eckstein was shipped to St. Louis." 

"With the clock ticking, and millions of taxpayer dollars at stake, the trial court erred in failing to bite the bullet on this claim... Anaheim was clearly bargaining for the name recognition given to locations associated with Major League Baseball teams," writes Guilford.  "Defendant (Angels Baseball, L.P.) used its discretion to embarrass Anaheim and deny Anaheim the exposure for which it plainly bargained.  This breaches Defendant's duty of good faith and fair dealing."

Guilford also cites the signed declaration of Antonio G. Tavares, former president of Disney Baseball Enterprises, who negotiated and agreed to the terms of the 1996 contract between Anaheim and the Angels.  "The [Tavares] declaration further closes the already tight loop on the parties' actual intent: 'Never did we contemplate that the team name would include another geographic name in addition to Anaheim, as this would be inconsistent with the purpose of Section 11(f): to give Anaheim prominence and closely identify Anaheim with the team so that Anaheim would be publicized when the baseball team was publicized.'"

Guilford opines that using the Angels' logic, the following names also would have be contractually permissible:  "The Angels who are Embarrassed to be Associated with Anaheim" or "The Angels of the Disgusting City of Anaheim"  or  "The Angels Formerly Known as the Team Identified with Anaheim."  In the end, he concludes that "we sense and know that the law does not permit such absurdities.  Technical compliance with a contract has never trumped the reasonable expectation of the parties."

A copy of the writ can be found at www.anaheim.net or www.savetheanaheimangels.com.

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ABOUT ANAHEIM - The City of Anaheim, founded in 1857, is one of the nation's premier municipalities and is California's 10th most populous city. Anaheim covers 50 square miles with more than 345,500 residents and more than 3,200 City employees. The municipal corporation's annual budget is $1.4 billion. Anaheim supports a thriving business community with companies such as Carl Karcher Enterprises, Inc., L-3 Communications, Pacific Sunwear, and Disneyland Resort. Successful sports franchises call Anaheim home, including Angels Baseball, Anaheim Ducks, the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winning U.S. Men's National Volleyball Team, and the 2008 Olympic Silver Medal winning U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team. Anaheim also boasts world-class meeting and entertainment venues with the Anaheim Convention Center, the largest on the west coast, Honda Center, The Grove of Anaheim, The Shops at Anaheim GardenWalk, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Annually, Anaheim welcomes millions of visitors to the city, truly making it where the world comes to live, work and play. For more information, please visit www.anaheim.net.