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Donald Sterling's Appeal of LA Clippers $2 Billion Sale Is Rejected

By Jonathan R. Tung, Esq. on November 19, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

California's 2nd District Court of Appeal not only rejected Donald Sterling's $2 billion sale of the Clippers to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, the Court all but reprimanded him for the appeal's "numerous deficiencies."

The ruling is a significant blow to Sterling who sought to undo the sale of the team he had owned for 33 years, despite his previously congratulating his wife for negotiating a sale price.

Sale of the Clippers

Donald Sterling, who had up until recently owned the L.A. Clippers for well over the better part of three decades, lost a bid to undo the recent sale of the team to Microsoft Executive Steve Ballmer. Sterling was forced to sell the team when his wife successfully proved to a court that Sterling was mentally incapacitated and that his removal from the Sterling Family Trust was in the best interest in the trust beneficiaries and for the team, which would enter a "death spiral" under Sterling, according to California Superior Court Judge, Michael Levenas.

If anyone needed any reminding, Shelly Sterling successfully took control of the family trust when a TMZ recording surfaced of Sterling making racially offensive comments to his girlfriend about blacks and other minorities.

Sterling's appeal must have been terrible. The three-judge panel wrote in its opinion that the evidence "overwhelmingly supported" Levenas' decision to green light the sale and that Sterling had "fail[ed] to demonstrate any legal error and fail[ed] to consider the facts in accordance with the proper standards of appeal." In the opinion of the Court of Appeals, Sterling wasted his time by simply parroting arguments that had been rejected outright by the probate court.

Meanwhile, Sterling is also suing his wife, the NBA, and handful of others over the sale of his beloved Clippers. It came as no surprise that he divorced his wife in August.

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