American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase
| American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase | |
|---|---|
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
| Full case name | American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Harold H. Chase |
| Decided | July 21, 1914 |
| Citation | 149 N.Y.S. 6, 86 Misc. Rep. 441 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1914) |
| Case history | |
| Prior action | Temporary injunction granted June 22, 1914 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Justice Herbert P. Bissell |
| Keywords | |
| Reserve clause, baseball, antitrust law, labor law, monopoly | |
American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase, 149 N.Y.S. 6 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1914), was a landmark New York Supreme Court case in which first baseman Hal Chase successfully challenged Major League Baseball's reserve clause. The court ruled that organized baseball operated as an illegal monopoly that violated common law rights to labor and contract. The decision preceded Curt Flood's famous challenge to the reserve clause by 56 years and represented one of the first successful legal challenges to baseball's restrictive labor system.