'87 Chronology-Break Time

Event Date: September 21st, 1987

Event Description: Breakers Reach Deal

Source: UPI

New Orleans developer Joe Canizaro, owner of the Portland Breakers of the U.S. Football League, reached a settlement with former players Tuesday as their $6.7 million lawsuit was about to go to trial.

The dispute was settled during a two-hour meeting in the chambers of U.S. District Judge Owen Panner between attorneys for Canizaro and the USFL Players Association. Details were not immediately announced.

The USFLPA was seeking $1.7 million in wages and bonuses, plus $5 million in punitive damages for 48 former Breakers players. Canizaro and his company, Joseph C. Canizaro Interests, were to have been defendants in the jury trial.

Panner reduced the scope of the trial last week. He ruled the attempt by the players' group to end the team's corporate structure as a limited partnership was not placed properly before the court.

Panner said the USFLPA should have presented the issue to an arbitrator under the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league.

The USFLPA claims Canizaro undercapitalized the franchise and fraudulently presented himself as the owner. It charged that Canizaro misrepresented to the players that they would be paid in full for the 1987 season, even though he knew they would not be paid or did not know if the funds would be available.

Gene Mechanic, a Portland attorney representing the USFLPA, said the group “recognized that Canizaro, as far as the paper trail, separated himself and the corporation.”

Mechanic said Canizaro “didn't deal honestly and openly with the players. He told the players he personally would take care of them. They played hard for him with the understanding that would help the Portland community and help him get investors.”

“When he saw he wasn't going to get the investors he needed, he just cut out and hasn't returned to Portland since.”

Kenneth Roberts, a Portland attorney for the defense, said in a pre-trial filing the “statements and conduct on which the players base the fraud allegation were simply words of emotional support and encouragement. Canizaro never intended to deceive.”

Story-(UPI Modified-Peter Gillins)