Concourse Ticket Agency v. Kraft

3 Mass. L. Rptr. 446
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedApril 3, 1995
DocketNo. CA9500666
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Mass. L. Rptr. 446 (Concourse Ticket Agency v. Kraft) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Concourse Ticket Agency v. Kraft, 3 Mass. L. Rptr. 446 (Mass. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

Connolly, J.

On March 27, 1995, the plaintiffs, Concourse Ticket Agency, Hub Ticket Agency, Ringside Ticket Agency, Roth Ticket Agency, Tyson Ticket Agency, Ltd. and Valenti Ticket Agency (“Ticket Holders”), filed a motion for a preliminary injunction pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 65(b) to enjoin the defendants, Robert K. Kraft, Kraft Patriots, Inc., and John Doe, d/b/a New England Patriots Limited Partnership (the “Patriots”), from cancelling the Ticket Holders’ 1995 New England Patriots chairback seat season tickets, and otherwise impairing or impeding the Ticket Holders from renewing their 1995 chairback seat season tickets at a fair and non-discriminatory price of $500.00 per chairback seat season ticket. The Ticket Holders have sued the Patriots for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, promissory estoppel, and breach of G.L.c. 93A, §§2 and 11. In support of their motion, the Ticket Holders argue that the risk of irreparable harm to them without the issuance of the requested injunction, together with the likelihood they will succeed on the merits, outweighs any risk of irreparable harm to the Patriots. In opposition, the Patriots argue that the Ticket Holders show no likelihood of success on the merits, have suffered no irreparable harm and would cause great harm to the Patriots by obtaining the relief sought. For the reasons discussed below, the Ticket Holders’ motion for preliminary injunction is ALLOWED.

BACKGROUND

Among the seating options at Foxboro Stadium,3 the Patriots offer a group of seats known as the “chairback seats.” These seats are advertised as the prime location seats, since they are located close to the field between the thirty-yard lines. The Ticket Holders have purchased chairback seat season tickets from the Patriots and their predecessor entities for approximately twenty years. Collectively, the Ticket Holders purchased one hundred and forty-eight chairback seat season tickets from the Patriots during the 1994 season at fifty dollars per ticket per game. At the end of the 1994 season, the Patriots offered each Ticket Holder the opportunity to purchase their chairback seat tickets to all home playoff games to be held at Foxboro Stadium. Each Ticket Holder accepted the Patriots’ offer and paid the consideration demanded. After the Team became ineligible to play the 1994 home playoff games, the Patriots offered either to refund the 1994 playoff money it had received for the Ticket Holders or to credit the Ticket Holders’ accounts toward renewal of their season tickets for the 1995 season. The Patriots’ offer to credit the 1994 playoff money toward the renewal of their 1995 season tickets was accepted by each Ticket Holder.

On or about February 22, 1995, each Ticket Holder received a letter from the Patriots informing them that the tickets they purchased for the season would be included in an exclusive “Playoff Club” season ticket package that offered the purchaser complimentary Sunday papers, a pregame speech by members of the Patriots front office and appearances by Patriot Cheerleaders. The Patriots charged two thousand five hundred dollars per chairback seat season ticket, or two hundred fifty dollars per seat per game to be a member of the Playoff Club. The Patriots have demanded that only the Ticket Holders, not any other corporate or individual chairback seat season ticket holder, pay the additional two thousand dollars per ticket or forfeit their 1995 chairback seat season tickets. After receiving the Patriots’ demand, the Ticket Holders commu[447]*447nicated this demand to their regular clients who have historically purchased these tickets. The Ticket Holders claim that not one customer agreed to pay the increased price of two hundred fifty dollars per ticket, and no customer desired membership in the Playoff Club.

On March 15, 1995, counsel for the Ticket Holders submitted a demand letter to the Patriots pursuant to G.L.c. 93A, §§2 and 11, demanding that the Patriots cease and desist from singling out the Ticket Holders for the five hundred percent increase in chairback season tickets. Subsequently, on March 17, 1995, each Ticket Holder received a letter from the Patriots stating that the Patriots had cancelled the Ticket Holders’ chairback seat season tickets for their failure to meet the payment deadline.

DISCUSSION

In evaluating a request for preliminary relief the court must first evaluate, in combination, the moving party’s claim of injury and its chance of success on the merits. If the failure to issue the injunction would subject the moving party to a substantial risk of irreparable harm, the court must then balance this risk against any similar risk of irreparable harm which granting the injunction would create for the opposing party. The raw amount of conceivable irreparable harm which each party may suffer does not matter; rather, the court must evaluate the risk of such harm in light of the party’s chance of success on the merits. Packaging Industries Group, Inc., v. Cheney, 380 Mass. 609, 617 (1980).

If the dispute is not between private parties, in addition to the principles set forth in Packaging Industries, the judge should consider the risk of harm to the public interest. Biotti v. Bd. of Selectmen of Manchester, 25 Mass.App.Ct. 637, 640 (1988); Commonwealth v. Mass. CRINC, 392 Mass. 79, 89 (1984); GTE Products Corporation v. Jefferson Davis Steward, Third, 414 Mass. 721, 723 (1993).

In evaluating the Ticket Holders’ claims and the evidence presented, this Court believes there is a likelihood of success on the merits. The Court will focus on Count III, Breach of Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, and Count V, Chapter 93A, §11.

“(T]he rule is clear in Massachusetts that every contract is subject to an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” Anthony's Pier Four, Inc. v. HBC Associates, 411 Mass. 451, 473 (1991) citing Warner Ins. Co. v. Commissioner of Ins., 406 Mass. 354, 362 n.9 (1990); Kerrigan v. Boston, 361 Mass. 24, 33 (1972). “The implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing provides ‘that neither party shall do anything that will have the effect of destroying or injuring the right of the other party to receive the fruits of the contract. . .’ ” Anthony’s Pier Four, Inc., 411 Mass, at 472 citing Drucker v. Roland Wm Jutras Assocs., 370 Mass. 383, 385 (1976) quoting Uproar Co. v. National Broadcasting Co., 81 F.2d 373, 377 (1st Cir. 1936), cert, denied, 298 U.S. 670 (1936). One party’s use of a discretionary right under an agreement as a pretext constitutes a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Anthony’s Pier Four, Inc., 411 Mass, at 473 (court found violation of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing when one party used its discretionary right, applying pressure on the other party, in an attempt to force that party to sweeten the deal) citing Northern Heel Corp. v. Compo Indus., Inc., 851 F.2d 456,471 (1st Cir. 1988) (applying Massachusetts law, court found violation of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in repudiation that was ‘but a tool engineered to serve the illicit purpose’ of extracting price concessions).

The Ticket Holders claim that under the long-standing agreement between the Patriots and the Ticket Holders, they had a right to renew their season tickets.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Mass. L. Rptr. 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/concourse-ticket-agency-v-kraft-masssuperct-1995.