26 replies to this topic

[gray_cat]

The Jaguar statement said: "Jaguar Racing this afternoon obtained an injunction at the High Court in London on behalf of Ford Motor Company and Jaguar Racing Ltd against McLaren International Ltd.

"The terms of this injunction restrain McLaren International from entering into or continuing any contract of employment with Adrian Newey post 31, July, 2002."

Looks like Newey may not get away too easy after all. Question to all 'unbiased' people, like Megatron, do you still beleive that Jaguar are making things up ?

[thistle]

Still going to depend on whether they should have ANY agreement with Newey before the 12 month cutoff point.

Mac's lawyers will have some counter injunction in place tomorrow.

[KinetiK]

Originally posted by thistle
Mac's lawyers will have some counter injunction in place tomorrow.

You're probably right. Lousy lawyers. I think Bobby and Ron should have a bitch slap fight to see who get's Adrian. Broadcast it on BernieVision with a camera mounted on each of their heads.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[Todd]

This reminds me of 1997. Williams had a contract saying that Newey couldn't start work for McLaren until late in the season, but it was widely believed that he started at McLaren the day after he left Williams. I wonder if he would honor an injunction? Considering his 2 contracts and the 1997 episode, honor and Newey may not be words than belong in the same sentence.

[Scudetto]

Part of this story in Autosport reads:

"McLaren has admitted Newey was persuaded to leave the team, but during the contract discussions it says it was not aware of the existence of a "binding contract". In a statement earlier today, the Woking-based team accused Jaguar of lying as it had denied having talks with Newey to persuade him to switch teams."

This is an amazing story unfolding before our eyes folks. I don't think we've seen this sort of political intrigue since the FISA/FOCA War of 81 -82. Ford/Jaguar sending a big F.U. to McLaren/Mercedes. This sort of thing should never have happened but, you have to admit, it's kind of exciting.

My thought is, when all is said and done, how can Newey feel comfortable wherever he lands? "Old friend" Rahal can't see him in the same light any longer, and Mr. "Pride and Ego" Dennis will make Newey rue the day his forced Mac into this position.

Great stuff.

[pa]

Like a court can force someone to work somewhere they don't want to - especially when they haven't even started work there! What kind of quality does Jaguar expect to get out of a shotgun relationship? What a joke.

[Williams]

Doesn't matter. Looks like he's going to go design boats anyway.

[AcidIce]

Honor and F1 can't be on the same sentence...
At least nowadays

[Scudetto]

One report on this story indicates that Newey is absent from Canada. I guess Ron grounded him for the weekend.

[gray_cat]

Firstly, let me apologize to Megatron, I confused you with Max Torque, can't think why

But Max Torque used to have very strong opinion on the case :

Originally posted by Max Torque
Who says Newey has signed a contract? Jaguar. Well, it's their word against Newey's. So far, they have been proven wrong.

.....

You call them jackals simply because you DISLIKE everything McLaren so much. It's so obvious a kid could see it.

.....

You mean that you would STILL bet money on Jaguar press releases??!

.....

If Jaguar has a contract, let us see it or let them go to court. Until then, this is simply McLaren Hate talking.

.....

Ok then RedFever, when Jaguar releases the contract to the press, I will start a thread about it accusing Newey of dishonesty and admitting you were right all along.

Do you know how to post a thread, Max Torque ?

[A3]

This is getting better and better ! Truly a soad opera !

I think Jaguar won't be stupid enough to take this to Court if they have no facts to back things up.

[arcwulf7]

I think Newey belongs in the America's (?) Cup Race.

[webstop]

1. I doubt that Jag knew exactly, what was written in Neweys contract with McL. There may be some "non-competition" blurb which could make anything Newey sign or say before certain date null and void. This has not been brought into light yet.
2. There may be different interpretation of the same language. This is not at all uncommon. Thats what Arbitration courts are for.
3. Typical employment contract has termination provision. Usually employeer can terminate a contract for a reason (non-performance, non-compliance etc.) but employee - at wish with certain advance notice. Since we talking about after 2002 here advance notice issue in kinda mute. This part I don't quite undrestand: why Jag is acting as if it OWNS Newey?
So the story is just unfolding and not all the chips are on the board yet.

[Tresor]

I don't think Rahal now wants Newey at Jaguar. His relationship with Newey seemed to be soured, unless Newey can show that Ron Dennis put a gun to his head to renege on his contract with Jaguar.

In the meantime, what I think Jaguar is really after is substantial financial compensation from Mclaren. Given the suspected expanded role Ron Dennis promised Newey to stay, the cost of that compensation could be too heavy for even Mclaren to tolerate. So McLaren may have little choice but to let Newey go Jaguar. In the end, Jaguar gains by playing tough through the courts. They will either gets lots of money or Newey. This is a recipe for long term litigation, my friends. Brace yourselves.

[Lantern]

Of course it will not exactly break Ford's heart if Newey leaves to design boats. Their mission is accomplished by simply negating the Newey advantage that Mac currently has over them.

[The RedBaron]

Ford has cash pile.....Daimler Chrysler don't.

[a_BAR_fan]

You wonder if you really want an engineer working for you after having to go to a high court to actually FORCE him into your company.

For some reason I have reason to believe he would be a little angry by that - and that anger may or may not affect his willingness to design race-winning cars?

This is a pretty basic outlook, but seriously, would you work to your maximum for a team that did that to you? I wouldn't.

[luskiiimj]

I don't think Jag will get Newey even if they win. That would be involutary servitude = slavery. What they could win is a permanent injunction on Newey plus compensation.

[slick1jayj]

Originally posted by luskiiimj
I don't think Jag will get Newey even if they win. That would be involutary servitude = slavery. What they could win is a permanent injunction on Newey plus compensation.

How is that so? He signed both contracts. It is all Neweys fault for not reading his contract/consulting with his legal team.

jay

[baddog]

becuase you can ALWAYS break a contract to work, noone can ever force you to work anywhere for even one day. What they can do is seek restitution if you fail to do so.

Shaun

[Darren]

As I see it, neither McLaren nor Jaguar have Newey at the moment, which is why they are both fighting so hard. Some points to clear up.
1. There is nothing in common law to prevent the holding of two contracts (for anything at all, although in this case it will be either professional services or employment, which are different by the way) simultaneously, except if the terms of either of those contracts demand exclusivity from the second party to the contract (ie, Newey in this case). I think we can take as read the exclusivity of all contracts in F1, except for some suppliers.
2. Restraint of trade law (both common law and European case law) pretty much knocks out the argument that Newey couldn't go to Jaguar after McLaren. It's a pretty well settled principle that if one makes a living as a stone cutter, then one's current stone cutter boss can't prevent one from ever stone cutting again. However, Newey could not go to Jaguar before the termination of his contract with McLaren if there was exclusivity in either of those contracts.
3. Contracts in common law are generally held to be valid as long as both parties are capable of performing them. If Newey suffered a massive stroke, the contract would be frustrated by reason of Newey's incapacity. This is different to mere unwillingness to peform the contract, but expect plenty of argument here. More likely, the contract has been breached.
4. The PR would appear to indicate two things: first, that Newey has an existing contract with McLaren which has yet to run its term but does not have another contract with McLaren after that; second that Newey may have an agreement with Jaguar, but the terms of that agreement are unclear. That is, if Jaguar has obtained an injunction, there is clearly an agreement there which may turn out to be legally valid. But we don't know what it's for. It could be simply an intention to negotiate a contract.

So the only thing is where Newey wants to go. Jaguar can only sue Newey for breach of contract, McLaren can only entice Newey to sign another.

[Daemon]

Again, the 12 month clause in Neweys MClaren contract applies to Adrian Newey alone. Jaguar, Ferrari, Jordan, anyone can approach his and say "work for us" and they are in no way breaching contracts. Newey is the one to say, "hold on, I can't talk to you for another 4 months.

If he breaks this he is liable, not Jaguar. Any contract signed with them is legally binding, regardless of his Mclaren contract. Worst Mclaren can do is fine and sack him. Not going to happen. All Newey has to do not to work for Jag, is not show up for work.

[hodgsonc]

I have a feeling Newey will go to Jaguar as a double-agent and design a crap car on purpose while designing the new Mclaren in his lunch break and sending the designs via encrypted emails to Mr Dennis.

or perhaps he's already a double agent working for Jaguar and sabourtaging the Mclaren launch control.

Who know!

[Dan_G]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Newey actually wants to work for Jag, or did when all this began. There is little concrete evidence to support this yet view yet, but it is a gut feeling I have about the whole situation and the way events began. I think Newey really wants to go to Jaguar, but right now he has to quietly sit back and let some of this play out, and let Ron have his fun while Adrian is still stuck under his contract stipulations. I think Newey will eventually happily work with Jaguar, based on the fact that he signed a binding agreement of some sort to work for Jaguar, even before he had concluded talks with McLaren. You just dont sign a contract in sports until you are sure you have the best offers from both sides. Now McLaren says they didnt have a clue that newey was talking to Jag. Well, why not? Because Newey didnt tell them. Ok, so if Newey didnt tell Mac that he was talking to Jag, then why not? It has been said that Newey wanted to play the two sides against each other. Well, how do you play two sides of a negotiation against each other, if neither side is aware that thay are in a bidding war? So, he signed a contract with Jag, before he ever even informed McLaren that there was a bidding war going on? I dont think so. That is not the way to negotiate a contract. I dont think he ever wanted McLaren to counter-offer, or else he would have told them he was talking to Jag. My suspicion is that Lauda jumped the gun in announcing the contract, and Newey had to save face with Ron by denying that he had anything legally binding.

The sequence of events just doesnt support the theory that Newey was playing the two teams against each other. It would tend to lead more logically to the conclusion that Newey wanted to leave, and Lauda got over excited at pulling the coup on his "buddy" Ron, which caught Adrian out with his pants down.

[hodgsonc]

Dan,

I think he didn't mention it to Ron because he's scared of him. I think I'd be scared to tell Ron I'd be leaving his team!

[Scudetto]

From a statement issued by McLaren today:

"Jaguar Racing has obtained a 'without notice' Injunction, which applies only until Tuesday, 12th June 2001 when there will be a further hearing at which McLaren will be represented for the first time. The lawyers acting for Jaguar Racing had previously established contact with those acting for McLaren but unusually chose not to inform them of their intentions or invite their contribution before the Judge.

"The Team is confident that when the facts of the case are heard on Tuesday, the Injunction will be lifted. In the meantime the Injunction has no bearing on our racing programme which is focussed on the Canadian Grand Prix. We wish to make no further comments on this matter during the race weekend."

Tuesday should be an interesting day!

[Darren]

More legal disingenuousness, or at least, further evidence for my contention that he hasn't signed with anyone at all. Reading through what McLaren have to say, it appears that the Jaguar injunction was simply to prevent Newey signing with McLaren for a contract extension over the race weekend and not an injunction to prevent Newey from signing with McLaren at any point (which you wouldn't get a court to buy in any case). McLaren are talking as if they will: a) get the injunction lifted (it would have expired soon anyway); and b) Newey will sign an extension with them after the injunction is lifted.

It's fairly usual to go belt-and-braces in litigation, so the Jaguar injunction isn't a surprise even if they feel they do have some form of enforceable agreement. However, injunctions also work well to buy time if you aren't completely shored-up yet. Jaguar may well be aware that their agreement isn't a contract for services, but merely an intent to form such a contract. It's looking increasingly like the outcome will suit neither Jaguar nor McLaren, and cost potentially be very costly for Adrian Newey.