Lanny's Day In Court

As reported both on this blog and on The Hockey Show last night, Lanny McDonald was a little busy today as he went to court to try to block the publishing of the manuscript that Kirstie McLellan Day had written about his life. As I stated on Wednesday on HBIC, this seems like one of the most bizarre stories to be published here considering the praise that Day has received in writing books about hockey's biggest stars and Lanny McDonald's likeability. The battle that McDonald is waging against Day and, by proxy, HarperCollins who paid both Day and McDonald for a book many months ago doesn't make much sense to me, but that's why lawyers are involved. They're also headed to court today to try and make sense of this whole ordeal.

The book, tentatively titled Call Me Lanny, was supposed to his shelves this fall as this is a key time for publishers to get books out that are applicable for the season. It would also see a boost in sales from a Christmas push as well, but none of that may happen for HarperCollins as McDonald and Day unable to find any resolution. That's why they were in a Calgary courtroom today.

As per Kevin Martin of the Calgary Herald who is quoting McDonald's lawyer, Gary Befus,

"There's a fundamental breakdown in trust between these two parties," Befus said, before agreeing with McLellan Day's lawyer Jason Holowachuk to seek judicial dispute resolution or some other form of third-party mediation. "It's impossible to expect that they are somehow going to work together and work this out."

As you read above, McDonald and Day did agree to enter into mediation, but this seems far from over considering the statement made by Befus.

What was striking today is that Justice Corina Dario "suggested neither side should be speaking to the media about their dispute," meaning we likely won't hear about anything that happens during mediation. Whatever deal the two strike or don't strike will likely go unmentioned as well as I'm sure neither side will want the details of the mediatied decision to be public, especially if one side makes serious concessions.

It seems that Day wrote more a memoir about Lanny's career rather than focusing on his post-hockey playing days where he's been active in the community. McDonald apparently made it clear that this book was not to be a memoir, but allowed Day to continue writing it in the manner she did. McDonald also wanted the book to apparently speak glowingly about him for his work in the community, and the final approval would include his wife's and two daughters' approval of the manuscript as well.

Whatever happens in the resolution of this battle, it sounds like there was poor communication between both parties despite Day getting the green light from McDonald to write the manuscript as she did. I would chalk this one up as a misunderstanding if the problem hadn't festered into a legal matter, but it will now require cooler heads and better communication to solve this stand-off between Day and McDonald.

And thanks to Justice Dario, it sounds like we'll only know if and when this disagreement has been resolved if Call Me Lanny hits the shelves in bookstores across the world.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!