As you get into your car at midnight on a
Friday after an exhausting mediation, you begin to mentally replay
how the day unfolded. Your client Phil Gridiron was sued for
$800,000 for failing to pay Fields of Dreams for construction of a
full-size football field in the backyard of one of his mansions. In
the middle of construction, the city objected because the field
would impact an easement. As a result, Fields of Dreams had to make
the field 98 yards long instead of 100. Claiming he bargained for
an exact regulation field, Gridiron refused to pay, and Fields of
Dreams filed a lawsuit.
For most of the day, Fields of Dreams would not budge below
$650,000, and the mediator pressed your client hard about emails
showing he knew about the easement. You pushed back, noting that an
obscure statute governing "gardeners" imposed an
obligation on Fields of Dreams to search land records. Your
persistence won the day, and your client settled the case by paying
$350,000.
