GGYC Court of Appeals Reply Brief

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- Highlights of GGYC Court of Appeals Reply Brief

- GGYC Court of Appeals Reply Brief

HIGHLIGHTS OF GGYC’S RESPONSE TO SNG AND CNEV BRIEFS
AT THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS
December 5, 2008 – Today, the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) submitted its reply brief to the New York State Court of Appeals in its suit over the future
the America’s Cup. The San Francisco-based club is asking the court to declare GGYC the legitimate Challenger of Record, and to reinstate the initial Supreme Court ruling that Club Náutico Español de Vela’s (CNEV’s) challenge in 2007 to Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Swiss club that holds the Cup, is invalid under the “Deed of Gift,” the 19th century document that governs the oldest trophy in international sport.

The following are verbatim excerpts from today’s 26-page brief illustrating SNG’s and CNEV’s disregard for the facts in their arguments to the Court:

Why GGYC Brought This Action (pp. 1‐2):

“GGYC initiated this litigation to hold SNG to the terms of the Deed, after SNG and CNEV ‘agreed’ to a Protocol so one‐sided that it was swiftly denounced by six teams from the 32nd America’s Cup and prompted Louis Vuitton to abandon its long‐time sponsorship of the event. GGYC has repeatedly emphasized that it wants a multi‐challenger event, in conventional monohulled yachts, governed by evenhanded rules like the ones that produced the highly successful 32nd America’s Cup.”

What the Deed of Gift Requires (pp. 1, 14):

“The Deed of Gift creates eligibility criteria obviously designed to ensure that the Challenger of Record is independent of the Defender and is already capable and experienced enough to mount a challenge worthy of the pinnacle event in sailing. The Deed clearly requires that the Challenger of Record must be an ‘organized Yacht Club,’ not a paper entity, and that it must have held an ‘annual regatta’ on an ocean course.

“If SNG and CNEV prevail, then the ‘organized Yacht Club’ condition in the Deed means nothing at all. CNEV does not even deny that it is a shell entity—an alter ego for the sailing federation RFEV that is admittedly not a yacht club. CNEV is not an organized yacht club: it has no members beyond its small board of directors, no boats, no facility, and no telephone number. SNG’s racing team’s own general counsel concedes that CNEV is a ‘paper club.’ SNG and CNEV also concede that CNEV had never held a regatta before its challenge was accepted. CNEV was not even formed until a few days before that challenge.”
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“Even CNEV does not agree with SNG’s radical interpretation of the Deed. Its brief admits that the ‘organized Yacht Club’ and ‘incorporated’ conditions are ‘requirements of the Deed’ that must be satisfied at the time of challenge.”