Court: Patriots ticket buyer bound to contract

Man forfeits luxury seats, must pay $65,500 in fees

If you want to buy those luxury club seats at Gillette Stadium to enjoy Patriots games, better read the fine print first.

A Brighton man who decided he wanted out of his 10-year agreement for two club seats after just one year must pay for the seats for the rest of the contract - $65,500, plus interest, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.

"I'm disappointed that it's gone this way," said the Patriots fan, Paul J. Minihane, a real estate broker and developer who chairs the Boston Finance Commission, a city watchdog agency. He declined to comment further on the ruling, which treated the agreements like leases on rental properties.

During a 2006 trial in a lower court, Minihane admitted that he did not read the entire agreement carefully, including the provision requiring him to pay the balance of the contract if he defaulted, the Supreme Judicial Court said yesterday.

The court noted that Minihane had signed many commercial contracts and always warned real estate clients to read agreements closely.

Minihane signed up for two $3,750 seats on the 20-yard line in the Club Level III section for 10 seasons, from 2002 to 2011. He paid a $7,500 deposit and later made another $2,000 payment toward the fee for the 2002 season. He or his guests attended all but one of the 2002 preseason and regular-season games at the stadium.

But he made no further payments to NPS LLC, the developer of the stadium, which then ordered him to pay the rest of the fees.

After a bench trial, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Charles J. Hely said the provision was unreasonable and ordered Minihane to pay only $6,000.

The high court disagreed yesterday, saying the developer was entitled to the "liquidated damages" mentioned if the contract was broken.

The court said that even though the Patriots had won their first Super Bowl in early 2002, shortly before the contract was inked, demand for luxury seats "was then and remains variable and depends, according to the evidence, on the current performance of the team, as well as other factors, such as the popularity of the players and the relative popularity of other sports, that are unpredictable at the time of contract."

The terms "may be harsh," especially when the ticket owner breaks the contract early in the 10-year agreement, but Minihane hadn't shown they were "unreasonably and grossly disproportionate," the court said.

Jim Cobery, counsel for the Patriots, was pleased that the court enforced the agreement, which he said benefits fans and the team.

"Fans wise enough to buy these licenses are able to lock in current prices over the long term, and the team benefits because it can be assured of that revenue stream in committing its resources," he said in a statement.

Under some circumstances, the team does allow owners of club seats who no longer want them to transfer them to other individuals. The new owners must then pay the fees.

Minihane's lawyer, Timothy F. O'Brien of Newton, had asked the justices to consider mitigating circumstances, including an acknowledgement by NPS that Minihane's seats were used by charities, relatives of Patriots players, and employees of the organization. But the court was unswayed.

O'Brien said he believes the team was concerned about the implications of the case for agreements between the developer and the owners of all 6,000 club seats at the stadium.

"If you enter one of these contracts for 10 years, be confident you're going to see it through," he said, "because if you don't, you're on the hook for however many years are left."

The court ruling didn't address whether Minihane would be allowed to sit in his seats after he's forced to pay for them, but it's unlikely. The Patriots had already treated it as a broken contract.