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Judgment on the Michael Beasley Civil Case
In the civil case of Michael Beasley against his former agent, several questions are raised concerning the case. One of the questions is whether the agent was in a legal capacity to enter into a contract with the player in Maryland. It is a requirement that sports agents should be licensed to operate under the laws of the state, that act to govern, regulate and protect student-athletes. In this case, the agent to Michael, Bell, had not acquired a license to act as an agent in Maryland (Yanda, 2011). This made him unviable for an agency contract in Maryland, which prompted the judge to declare that the contract was void. Without the license, he had no legal capacity to operate as an agent in the state, hence any contract concerning sports agency would not be valid. The judgment made by the judge was valid considering the contract was not enforceable legally (McDuffy, 2001).
The other question is whether the law of agency was breached when the agent was fired by the principle. Does a principle have the right to fire an agent anytime or is there a process to be followed? (U.S. Legal, 2010). Several factors need to be considered here, such as if there was a fixed contract supposed to end at a particular date. It was evident that there was a contract between the two parties in the KansasState where the agent was licensed to operate. However, it was not clear for what period the contract was supposed to last. In addition, the terms of the contract would need to be reviewed to find out whether the contract between them was explicitly stated or implied.
Another question that can be asked is whether there was any third party involved when the contract was terminated. In this case, we are not told of any third party that was affected by termination of the contract. However, despite the power to terminate the contract of agency, there are conditions under which a principle can terminate the agency without incurring any liability for breach of contract. Some of these conditions include dishonesty by the agent, untrustworthiness of the agent, if an agent is hindering proper accounting of the principle’s goods and if the agent uses the agency for private, self gain behind the consent of the principle. Other conditions under which there can be such termination are many. In our case, these conditions are not provided although it seems the agent acted well, and the contract did not have to be terminated (Twomey & Jennings, 2007).
In addition, before terminations, there is need for a notice if the agency’s end was not explicitly indicated. In this case, there was no notice, which should have been made before termination. However, considering there is no contract that existed between the two parties, Michael and Bell, there was no need of making any notice. No factors considered in a contract of agency including the above-mentioned can be applied to this case since no contract exists. The only contract that existed in this case between the principle and the agent was in Kansas before the principle came to Maryland. In Maryland, the agent had no authority to act as an agent to Michael.
In another case concerning Jason Paul Wood, he came across two baseball players in Miami and failed to register with the State of Florida and notify the university. This cost him a fine worth $2,500. The rules put in place are meant to protect the college athletes from losing their eligibility, as well as preventing their schools from getting in trouble with NCAA from the dealing of an agent (Zagier, 2010). Many of the states have set up laws regulating the practices of sports agents with students to ensure they are well protected. All sports agents in these states are required to have licenses with the state in order to practice agency in that area. Failure to which calls for punishment to the agents, and the students have their responsibility.
In the case of Michael and Bell, it is clear there was no contract in existence in Maryland between the two, and whether he had fired the agent or not, he was not permitted to operate in Maryland, which could have hindered the activities of the player. The judgment was fair that there was no valid contract (Masteralexis & Hums, 2011).
References
Masteralexis, & Hums, M. (2011). Principles and Practice of Sport Management. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
McDuffy, A.S. (2001). A Discussion of Legal Issues Affecting Big Chapters Prepared For the Officer Leadership Training Materials. National Legal Review Committee.
Twomey, D.P. & Jennings, M.M. (2007). Anderson‘s business law and the legal environment: standard volume. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
U.S Legal. (2010). Duration and Termination of Agency. Retrieved from http://agency.uslegal.com/duration-and-termination-of-agency/
Yanda, S. (2011). Judge sides with Michael Beasley in case against former agent; Joel Bell says he will appeal. The Washington Post.
Zagier, A. S. (2010). Laws On Sports Agents Rarely Enforced. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/laws-on-sports-agents-rar_n_685000.html
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