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Court ruling sides with Times in JOA battle with P-I

Seattle Times staff

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The court ruled the JOA contract's language regarding "force majeure'' did not outweigh the language in the JOA "for purposes of the escape clause.''

In September, Hearst won a partial victory in a suit it filed last spring against The Times Co. in King County Superior Court. In that decision, Judge Greg Canova ruled that The Times could not use financial losses it incured in 2000 to invoke the contract's escape clause.

Under that clause, either paper can force negotiations to close one of them or end the JOA after undergoing three consecutive years of losses. The Times notified Hearst in April that it had recorded losses in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

The Times appealed Canova's decision.

In its ruling today, the appeals court wrote: "The Times' loss notice represents a sad moment for Seattle and for journalism. The advantage of two daily nespapers is a rare state of affairs today and the temptation is great to rewrite the JOA, in the hope we will somehow preserve both. But this we may not do. Whatever the ultimate outcome of this litigation, on this question, the agreement is clear and not subject to the interpretation urged by Hearst.''

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