A lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Monday by a
trust liquidating the assets of former Rockies Partner Oren
Benton named Rockies Managing General Partner Jerry McMorris
as well as General Partners Dick and Charlie Monfort as
defendants, according to Don Knox of the DENVER POST.
Trustee David Beckman "cited a host of complaints against
McMorris and the Monforts, most importantly their decision
citing alleged conflicts to reject six of seven people or
groups thinking of buying the 23.7 percent stake once owned
by Benton." The stake could "conceivably be worth" $50M.
The suit also accuses McMorris and the Monforts of "failing
to pay any annual profits" to the two Benton trusts "and of
providing only sparse and non-timely information about the
team's finances." McMorris denied the allegations. Beckman
claimed that while the trust has been working to sell
Benton's share of the team, McMorris and the Monforts have
been "aggressively uncooperative, seemingly in an attempt to
force a sale of our ownership share back to them at a
ridiculously low price" (DENVER POST, 8/17). But the
Rockies' outside counsel Michael McCarthy said there "has
been a tremendous amount of foot-dragging and delay" from
the trustee's side. McCarthy added that the Rockies'
position is that the owners do hold a right of first refusal
on any offer made for the stake (DENVER POST, 8/18).
