Benson Family Going To Mediation Over Saints/Pelicans Ownership
I hate to think of family members fighting. Unfortunately family members are made up of humans and humans sometimes disagree. The Tom Benson family is a family that disagrees. Compared to you and I they have a lot more than just family issues to disagree about. They have a lot of money and two major sports franchises in the mix.
Legal advisers for Tom Benson and his estranged heirs have decided that mediation is the best way to settle the current family feud over ownership of the NFL and NBA franchise. Most experts agree that Mr. Benson's desire to remove his family members as future owners of the two teams did have very strong legal footing so mediation was going to be the best avenue to settle the dispute.
He cannot unilaterally cut his heirs out of the ownership of those teams. He's going to have to negotiate with them.
Those are the comments reported by the Louisiana Radio Network of Tim Meche. Tim is a legal analyst who has been following the case. In the case Mr. Benson had filed a suit that would allow him to take back shares of stock from his family members. The suit would also force those members out as non-voting owners of the team. To use an NFL term, upon further review, members of Mr. Benson's legal council decided that mediation might be the best option.
Especially when one side has a weaker position than the others. Quite frankly, Tom Benson's position legally is not as strong as his heirs.
The question that mediation will most likely answer is this. Will the family members settle for a large sum of money or will they demand the ability to maintain a portion of ownership in the franchises. We won't know until the two sides sit down and talk. Let's hope they can work things out. If not the other option is a reality show that a lot of us would probably not understand but would watch anyway because it involves the Saints.