Tennis Promoter Must Pay $1 Million in Prizes and Punitive Damages

Nearly two years after winning a Newport Beach tennis exhibition, Jimmy Connors may finally get his first-place prize money.

Connors and three others who played in the eight-player event at the Newport Beach Tennis Club in August 1983--Ivan Lendl, Yannick Noah and Wojtek Fibak--were awarded a total of $1,049,684 in back payments and punitive damages Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The players had sued Bill Stamps Jr., the promoter of the exhibition, High Stakes at Newport Beach, for breach of contract, charging that he had not paid the contract guarantees and prize money.

The suit, filed by Los Angeles attorney Sam Perlmutter Dec. 29, 1983, called for the following payments: $190,000 to Connors, $105,000 to Lendl, $65,000 to Noah and $20,000 to Fibak.

According to Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Kent Birdwell, the players will get those payments, plus interest, plus $150,000 apiece as punitive damages.

“It’s a precedent-setting decision,” Perlmutter said. “We sued for breach of contract and for misrepresentation, that he (Stamps) said he intended to pay the players when, in fact, he did not intend to pay--because he had no money.

“This is one of the few times that a sports promoter has been socked with punitive damages. If anything, this gives a warning to promoters that if they give a check to players, they had better know for sure that it’s good.”

Stamps gave cashier’s checks to all eight players who participated in the exhibition. Four of them--runner-up Tim Mayotte, Mats Wilander, Kevin Curren and Eliot Teltscher--were able to cash their checks, but payment was stopped on the checks issued to Connors, Lendl, Noah and Fibak.

The four players paid were represented by International Management Group. Those unpaid were all represented by ProServ Inc.

“I think that’s coincidental,” Perlmutter said. “The players from Mike McCormack’s group (IMG) got their checks earlier than my clients and cashed while the money was there. Stamps did not have the money to cover the whole shot.”

Stamps was unavailable for comment.

Ivan Blumberg of ProServ said that he did not know if Stamps had the money to pay the players now. “But if he does, we intend to find it,” he said.