No money to Big Rock competitors until legal dispute is resolved, judge rules

BY CATHERINE KOZAK

BY CATHERINE KOZAK

No money will be handed to any 2010 Big Rock Marlin Tournament competitors until a legal dispute about the prizes is resolved.

A lawsuit was filed Monday in Dare County Superior Court by Big Rock Foundation, Inc. in answer to a July 1 complaint filed by the owners of the Hatteras-based Citation, the charter boat that was disqualified from first place winnings of more than $1 million in the June contest because a mate lacked a fishing license when the fish was caught.

In its amended complaint and counterclaim, Big Rock asserts that the Citation crew was in violation of North Carolina fishing regulations as well as tournament rules when an 883-pound marlin was landed by mate Peter Wann.

Big Rock’s attorney Brad Evans, with the Greenville firm Ward and Smith, said Tuesday that their earlier filing in Carteret County has been dropped, and the case will now be heard in Dare County.

Evans said that it is too soon to speculate whether a settlement prior to as-yet unscheduled court hearings may be able to resolve the legal questions.

“I can’t say one way or another,” he said.

A consent order signed on July 14 by Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett stated that defendants Big Rock Foundation and Crystal Coast Tournament shall not pay any of the $1,231,575 in contested prize money until ordered to do so by the court.

The agreement also said that plaintiffs Michael Topp, Duncan Thomasson, Martin Kooyman and Black Pearl Enterprises are not required to post a bond.

When the tournament organizers learned that Wann, the mate, did not possess a recreational saltwater fishing license until more than two hours after the marlin was caught, the Citation was disqualified from its winnings of $912,825 in the Blue Marlin Division and $318,750 in the Fabulous Fisherman’s Level.

The disqualified 883-pound marlin would have set a tournament record for the largest blue marlin brought to the dock.

Because of this disqualification, which was announced on June 22, The Big Rock Board of Directors declared the second-place boat, Carnivore, the tournament winner with its 528.3 pound blue marlin, caught by angler John Parks.  The board awarded a $999,543 first prize to the Carnivore.

But the vessel’s owners assert in their claim that the Citation had “fulfilled all obligations to defendants in accordance with the tournament entry form and rules and is entitled to receive the full amount of both top prizes.”

The lawsuit, which claims that Big Rock’s refusal to award the prizes constitutes breach of contract,  does not specifically defend the Big Rock assertion that Wann was required to have the license before he started fishing, except to state that the Citation “had complied with all rules and regulations required by the tournament.”

Big Rock, on the other hand, claims there was no contract between the parties.

Andy Gay, the attorney representing the Citation’s owners, said that facts of the case are simple: The vessel was out of North Carolina’s jurisdiction when the fish was caught, and by the time it re-entered state waters, the mate had a valid saltwater recreational fishing license that he acquired online.

State waters extend only three miles out, Gay said. And whatever rule the tournament had about the license, he said, that didn’t apply anyway.

“It didn’t count on the way out, because the tournament didn’t start,” he said. “It doesn’t start until 9 o’clock in the morning. My clients are out in the Gulf Stream, waiting for the tournament to start in international waters.”

Gay, with Zebulon firm Gay, Jackson & McNally, said that the blanket license the Citation possessed had expired at the end of April. Wann had assumed that the vessel’s license covered him until he double-checked online after the marlin was hooked.

That is also when the mate discovered that his own fishing license had expired.

“I looked at it, and I was like (expletive),” Wann was quoted on June 24 in The Washington Post.

But ultimately, Gay said, Wann had a valid license well before it was required during the tournament, and that’s all that’s relevant to the Citation qualifying for the prize money.

“From 9 o’clock until the end of that tournament, they violated no rules,” he said.

Gay said that a meeting is scheduled on Friday with attorneys and representatives from Big Rock and the Citation.  He said he is confident that the Big Rock folks have learned more about the situation, and potentially could decide in Citation’s favor.

“Their minds are not made up,” he said. “We believe that we have a good faith basis for them to reconsider.”

(Catherine Kozak, a former reporter for The Virginian-Pilot in the Nags Head office, is now a freelance writer for The Island Free Press and other publications.)