Dodger Ownership Case in Hands of Judge

Los Angeles - The question of whether a post-nuptial agreement between Frank and Jamie McCourt gives him sole ownership of the Dodgers or whether she also has a stake in the team was put in the hands of a judge this afternoon.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon heard 10 days of testimony, starting in late August, and took the case under submission after hearing closing arguments. He has up to three months to issue a ruling.

Lawyer Dennis Wasser, who maintains Jamie McCourt is a co-owner of the National League franchise, argued the marital property agreement should be tossed out.

He said "directly contradictory exhibits" -- legal documents at odds with one another -- signed by the McCourts in 2004 means there was no "meeting of the minds," and there is not a valid contract.

Wasser was referring to documents that both sides signed, three of which stated Frank McCourt alone owns the Dodgers and three others that state they were not his separate property.

Wasser also argued Massachusetts lawyer Lawrence Silverstein was not credible when he said he was unable to remember making a change in a page of the agreement in April 2004 to say the Dodgers belonged to Frank McCourt, although he believes he must have been the one responsible and that he was just correcting a clerical miscue.

"Does he have a bad memory, your honor, or is he making things up as he goes along?," Wasser asked.

Silverstein claims he cannot recall those actions because he fears being "suspended, disbarred or convicted of a crime," Wasser told the judge.

Silverstein never told either McCourt about the switch, Wasser said.

Silverstein drafted the marital property agreement for the couple shortly after Frank McCourt bought the team for $430 million and while the couple were still living in Massachusetts.

The documents with the errors were signed first by Jamie McCourt in Massachusetts and later by her husband in California. They also signed a set of documents without the errors, and that signing took place in Massachusetts.

Both McCourts acknowledged they did not carefully read the agreements before putting their signatures on them.

Wasser said his client was "lulled" into thinking Silverstein also was representing her, but later found out that he was protecting her husband's interests only. Therefore, Jamie McCourt was deprived of a chance to have her own lawyer investigate and review the agreement, according to Wasser.

The McCourts, who married in November 1979 and have four grown sons, separated on July 6, 2009.

Frank McCourt, 57, fired his 56-year-old wife as the Dodgers' chief executive officer the day after the team lost the 2009 National League Championship Series to the Philadelphia Phillies in October. She filed for divorce five days after her firing.