'Seinfeld' cited in Clancy court ruling

Maryland's highest court apparently has a sense of humor.

The state Court of Appeals last week used an episode of "Seinfeld" to help explain a ruling in a long-running legal dispute between author Tom Clancy and his ex-wife, Wanda King.

The couple, which separated in 1996, are at odds over whether the author removed his name from a book series to deny his ex-wife money.

They entered into a marital property agreement leading up to their divorce in 1999. In 2004, Mr. Clancy moved to have his name withdrawn from the series, "Tom Clancy's Op-Center," which were books that he did not author.

A lower court ruled that he violated his financial responsibility to his wife when he removed his name. However, the appeals court said there was "potentially competing evidence" whether Mr. Clancy acted in good or bad faith. Their ruling sends the case back to a lower court.

The appeals court included dialogue from 1996 "Seinfeld" episode titled, "The Wig Master," in its footnote. In the episode, Jerry Seinfeld seeks to return a jacket at a clothing store. When asked by a clerk why he wanted to return it, he responds: "For spite."

"I don't care for the salesman that sold it to me," Seinfeld says. But store manager, Bob, tells him he can't return an item "based purely on spite."

"In attempting to exercise his contractual discretion out of 'spite,' Jerry breached his duty to act in good faith towards the other party to the contract," the court wrote under the footnote.

Seinfeld would have been able to return the jacket "if, in his good faith opinion, it did not fit or was not an attractive jacket," the court said. "Jerry's post hoc rationalization that he was returning the jacket because he did not 'want it' was rejected properly by Bob as not credible."

Clancy attorney Rachel T. McGuckian applauded the ruling, but wouldn't comment further because the case was ongoing. An attorney representing Ms. King said she saw some signs of hope that the episode was used "perhaps as a note of guidance."

"This case is far from over, and obviously the fact that the Court of Appeals cited 'Seinfeld' certainly makes the state's highest court a force in the modern legal world," attorney Sheila K. Sachs said. Mr. Clancy, a graduate of Loyola College in Baltimore, was an insurance broker in Maryland when he wrote his first book, "The Hunt For Red October."