Divorce lawyers for Frank and Jamie McCourt are planning to go into mediation as soon as Friday over who owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, The Associated Press has learned.
Citing a person familiar with the case, the AP reported late Tuesday that the two sides would meet in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Friday. The mediation talks were first reported by Yahoo! Sports.
Jamie McCourt contends that she deserves a part of the team, while Frank McCourt argues that he is the team's sole owner. Earlier this week, she testified that she didn't read a postnuptial marital agreement which gave her estranged husband sole possession of the Dodgers.
During a day of bombshells Tuesday, an attorney who represented the couple and drafted the agreement said he replaced an addendum that excluded the Dodgers from Frank McCourt's separate property with wording that included the team and didn't notify Jamie McCourt about the switch.
Larry Silverstein, who resumed his testimony Wednesday, said he made a "drafting error" when he prepared the agreement that didn't include the Dodgers, the stadium and the surrounding land, worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Frank McCourt's side of the ledger.
When Silverstein gave the documents to the McCourts to sign in March 2004, three had the team as Frank McCourt's separate property, and three others didn't. Jamie McCourt ended up signing all six; Frank McCourt signed three at the couple's Massachusetts home and the remaining three a couple of weeks later while he was in California.
The agreement is at the center of the dispute between the McCourts and could decide who owns the Dodgers. Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon must decide whether the pact is valid. He also could order the sale of the team.
In court Wednesday, Silverstein said that he didn't tell the couple he made a change to the postnuptial agreement the day before they signed the document.
Silverstein said Wednesday that he discovered a mistake that excluded the Los Angeles Dodgers, the stadium and the surrounding property from Frank McCourt's separate property. He said he made the correction to include the team as one of Frank McCourt's assets, but didn't tell the couple before they signed the pact in March 2004.
