Just the Fax . . .
             Claude Lemieux, Forward, New Jersey Devils

     The New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League thought they had winger Claude Lemieux, the Most Valuable Player of the 1994-1995 NHL playoffs, signed and sealed for the 1995-1996 season. On June 30, 1995, Lemieux signed a copy of a contract that the Devils had sent to him over the fax machine. Under the contract, the Devils were to pay Lemieux $5.2 million for four years. Weeks later, Lemieux had second thoughts. Lemieux informed the Devils that his contract wasn't valid because he had signed a fax copy, not the original document. When Lemieux failed to report for the start of the new season, his team took the case to a hearing before an arbitrator. Not surprisingly, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the Devils. The only real surprise was that the hearing lasted two days and consumed seventeen hours. "We're not at all surprised by today's ruling," Lou Lamoriello, president and general manager of the club, said in a statement after the arbitrator's decision. "We've been saying all along that as far as we are concerned, Claude Lemieux was under contract to the New Jersey Devils ...." The arbitrator's ruling established that a facsimile copy of a contract is as good as the original. In signing the fax, it was as if Lemieux had signed the original document.