A California state appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the California State Athletic Commission was correct in holding a boxer strictly liable for his violation of commission rules, which ultimately cost the boxer his license.
Antonio Margarito is a professional boxer who has fought more than 30 times across the United States, including more than half a dozen championship fights. Margarito was licensed by the Commission as a professional boxer in California from the mid-1990s until 2009 when his license was revoked.
Margarito was scheduled to fight Shane Mosley in a welterweight championship boxing contest in Los Angeles on January 24, 2009. Margarito’s trainer, Javier Capetillo, was responsible for preparing the hand wraps, bandages, and tape used to protect Margarito’s hands during the contest. Capetillo was a professional trainer who had worked with many professional boxers during his 38-year career as a trainer. During his 11 years as Margarito’s trainer, Capetillo was the only person who wrapped Margarito’s hands before a boxing contest.
Before the contest with Mosley, Capetillo was wrapping Margarito’s hands while four Commission inspectors and Mosley’s trainer observed the process. After Capetillo finished wrapping Margarito’s right hand, Mosley’s trainer asked the inspectors to physically inspect a premade gauze “knuckle pad” insert that Capetillo was about to wrap over Margarito’s left hand. The inspectors found that the inner layers of the pad were discolored and that the pad felt harder than it should have. In a report prepared after the inspection, Commission Inspector Che Guevara described the gauze pad removed from Margarito’s left hand as “dirty-looking” and smeared with a white substance that looked like plaster and was hard to the touch. Concluding that the pad violated the rules, the inspectors confiscated the pad and instructed Capetillo to prepare a new one.
Mosley’s trainer then asked the inspectors to examine the gauze insert in Margarito’s already-wrapped right hand. Margarito insisted there was nothing in the right hand wrapping, and held his hand out saying, “Touch it. Feel it. Go ahead. There is nothing in it.” The inspectors ordered the wrapping removed and found a similar improperly hardened pad, which they confiscated. After Capetillo prepared two new knuckle pads, the inspectors approved Margarito’s hand wraps and allowed Margarito to proceed with the boxing match.
In a letter dated January 27, 2009, the Commission notified Margarito that his boxing license was temporarily suspended for violation of Rule 323, which “limits the use of gauze and tape on an athlete’s hands.”
The Commission set a formal hearing on the matter for February 10, 2009 in which all seven commissioners, after examining the evidence, voted unanimously to revoke Margarito’s license.
In a written decision issued on March 31, 2009, the Commission “found that the knuckle pads removed from Margarito’s hand wraps before the Mosley fight on January 24, 2009, had been adulterated with a white plasterlike substance,” wrote the court. “The Commission concluded that the use of adulterated knuckle pads by a boxer seriously endangers the boxer’s opponent and gives the boxer an unfair advantage that causes discredit to boxing. The Commission further concluded that ‘because [Margarito] violated Commission Rule 323 there is sufficient cause for revocation of [Margarito’s] boxing license pursuant to Commission Rule 390 and Business and Professions Code section 18841.’”
Margarito appealed the judgment, arguing before a state court judge that, among other things, the Commission erred when it used a strict liability standard in judging the plaintiff. That court rejected the argument, concluding that the Commission’s interpretation of Rules 323 and 390 to hold the boxer strictly liable for the rule violation was reasonable in light of the language and purpose of those rules. The plaintiff appealed.
The appeals court, however, agreed with the lower court.
It wrote that “the commission’s interpretation of Cal. Code Regs., tit. 4, §§ 323 and 390, to hold the boxer strictly liable for the rule violation was reasonable in light of the language and purpose of those rules. Neither rule contains qualifying language such as ‘knowingly’ or ‘intentionally.’ The absence of such qualifying language indicated the commission did not intend guilty knowledge or intent to be elements of a violation.”
Antonio Margarito v. State Athletic Commission; Ct.App.Calif., 2d App. Dist., Div. 2; B220649, 189 Cal. App. 4th 159; 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 1772; 9/30/10
Attorneys of Record: (for plaintiff) O’Melveny & Myers, Daniel M. Petrocelli and David Marroso. (for defendant) Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Alfredo Terrazas, Assistant Attorney General, Karen B. Chappelle and Rene Judkiewicz, Deputy Attorneys General.
