Canberra's marathons in limbo
Late last year event organiser Cundy Sports Marketing (CSM) launched action in the Federal Court against the ACT Cross Country Club (ACTCCC), who founded the event. Cundy Sports Marketing, headed by internationally respected marathon official David Cundy and his partner Fran Seton, alleged that the ACT Cross Country Club had breached the Trade Practices Act by interfering with their business by reviewing the operations of the event, applying for a trade mark and communicating with sponsors and the ACT government.At the centre of the dispute is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by both bodies in 2002 and a separate sponsorship agreement. In general terms, the documents sets out broad rights for Cundy Sports Marketing to conduct the event with financial autonomy unless it is unable to do so and of the level of volunteer support to be provided by ACTCCC.
CSM claims that the MOU is a legally enforceable contract not subject to alteration at the sole discretion to the ACTCCC, a point on which the ACTCCC disagree.
With the matter not to be before court again until 11 July, Stanhope has quashed CSMs hopes of conducting the event by not granting the road closures which Cundy had promoted as being a formality.
"The courts have been asked to make a ruling on which of the parties owns the event and the legal advice I have received is that until the court makes its decision, the government doesn't know who owns the Marathon and so it is not in a position to approve the running of the event this April," said Stanhope.
"Put simply, we cannot pre-empt the findings of the court by ruling in favour of one of the disputing parties over the other."
The Government's move means that the Canberra Marathon - at least the one in April - will not proceed. However, to add to the complexity of the situation the ACT Cross Country are advertising a new event via their website [Ed: link was operational on the evening of 3 February, but no longer exists as at morning of 4 February] - the Canberra Road Running Festival - which will incorporate the National Capital Marathon, run over the same course as the Canberra marathon, on the weekend of 1-2 May.
Both the moves of the Government and of the ACT Cross Country Club considerably raise the stakes in the dispute; should Cundy be successful in its court action there is the strongly possibility damages for loss of income which otherwise would have been earned through running the marathon will be pursued. Additionally, it is not yet clear whether the Chief Minister will grant road closures for the National Capital Marathon, which on face value appears designed to circumventing the intellectual property rights which may be relied upon by either or both of CSM or ACTCCC in their current legal action.
Photo by James Neill
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Comments
As if anybody will run in a race put on by people who had to hand over management before cause they couldn't do it properly, can't write what they mean in contracts and are being sued for dodgy business practices!!!
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