Top Plaintiffs' Verdicts by Impact: The Sterling Family Trust

In a highly publicized trial, plaintiffs' attorneys succeeded in invoking an uncommon probate code section that cleared the way for the record $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft Corp. executive Steve Ballmer.

Shelly Sterling, who co-owned the Clippers with her husband, Donald Sterling, agreed to sell the basketball franchise in late May after removing Donald as a trustee under a provision of the family trust that required two experts declare him incapacitated.

The National Basketball Association sought to terminate Donald Sterling's ownership in part because of the release of a private audio recording in which Sterling allegedly made disparaging remarks about minorities.

Whether Shelly Sterling properly removed her husband under terms of the trust became the crucial question in a trial before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas. The Sterling Family Trust BP152858 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed June 11, 2014).

Shelly Sterling's lead counsel, Pierce O'Donnell of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, said he persuaded defense attorneys to narrow the trial's scope away from Donald Sterling's mental health to prevent it from becoming the "battle of the experts."

During the trial, O'Donnell focused on persuading Levanas that if the NBA seized the Clippers, which it would do if the deal with Ballmer didn't close by mid-September, the team would sell for far less than the "astronomical" $2 billion being offered.

It provided the "imminent risk to the value of property" required for the judge to approve a request to allow the sale to go through despite any appeal by Donald Sterling under section 1310(b) of the California Probate Code, the attorney said.

"It was one of the rare cases where I hoped and the judge agreed," O'Donnell said. "I showed that the team was in a death spiral, and if it didn't get to sell, the value was going to plummet."

Levanas also ruled that Shelly Sterling had acted properly in removing her husband as a trustee.

Donald Sterling's attorneys, however, contended that the probate proceedings were moot because the trust had previously been revoked. Such jurisdictional questions and others are being raised on appeal in the 2nd District Court of Appeal, said defense attorney Babak "Bobby" Samini.

- Kylie Reynolds