One man’s divorce led to his former brother-in-law missing out on six years-worth of hockey games. After a lengthy legal battle, a judge sided with one of the men, finding that he had every right to use the Canadiens season-tickets that his former brother-in-law denied him.
According to The Spec, the Canadiens fan Louis Terzopoulos was awarded $45,000 in compensation after he argued that his former brother-in-law Petros Sakaris did not allow him to use his season ticket seats that they had shared over the past 19 years. The seats, which were described by a former Montreal Coanadiens executive as “among the best seats in the house” during a court session, had an unobstructed view above the penalty bench on the centre-ice red line in the Centre Bell.
The pair, who had met each other through their respective girlfriends – and then wives – had discussed owning season tickets together, and in 1995, Sakaris scored tickets from someone who was giving up her seats for the team’s previous home at the Montreal Forum. Both men divided the cost of the seats, but only one person could be named on the account. Since the tickets were under Sakaris’ name, he has denied Terzopoulos his tickets since 2014 when he went through a difficult divorce.
Terzopoulos argued that this was not fair, since the duo had split the regular season tickets equally for years, so he essentially had rights to those seats. Justice Jeffrey Edwards agreed, noting there was “overwhelming evidence” that confirms the two shared the season tickets together, and that the agreement between Terzopoulos and Sakaris should have been “treated separately and independently from the marriage breakdown of Louis and Petros’ sister-in-law.”
“In his testimony, Petros admitted that he refused to provide further tickets to Louis on the basis of the recriminations of his sister-in-law against Louis,” the judge wrote. “In so doing, Petros took the law into his own hands and meted out what he felt was a deserved punishment for Louis.”
Now, Sakaris owes $8,000 to Terzopolous for the loss of enjoyment of the prime seating during both the regular season and playoff games, as well as $1,050 for a souvenir Montreal Forum seat that he did not give to Terzopolous. The remaining portion of the $44,849 is for Terzopolous’ share of the season tickets, legal fees, and his registration on the team’s waiting list.
Sakaris’ attorney is planning to appeal the case.
The Canadiens are currently in their preseason; the official season kicks-off on October 3 when they’ll take on the Hurricanes.
