On Monday, Sheel Seidler, the widow of former Padres chairman Peter Seidler, filed a complaint against two of the latter's brothers over control of the team. The complaint alleges that Matthew and Robert Seidler, as successor trustees to Peter Seidler's trust, failed to comply with their fiduciary duties to Sheel Seidler, the sole beneficiary of the trust, including by withholding funds and using the trust as a "piggybank" to enrich themselves. It also states that Peter Seidler wished for his wife to become the control person of the team, including a handwritten ranking with his wife and children at the top. After Peter Seidler's death, his eldest brother John was instead submitted to MLB as the Padres' next control person.
A spokesman for the Seidler Trusts released a statement calling Sheel Seidler's complaint "entirely without merit." According to the statement, the trustee of Seidler's trust was solely responsible for appointing the next control person, and in 2020, when Peter Seidler took control of the team, Sheel Seidler had agreed that she "had no right to be or to designate the Control Person and that she would not interfere with the designated Control Person." It also alleged that Sheel Seidler had agreed in May 2024 that John Seidler would be the best control person for the team. The statement did not address the issue of whether or not Matthew and Robert Seidler had mismanaged the trust, which, while likely being a more salient moral-legal issue at the crux of the complaint, is less relevant to the general public.
While some companies enjoy referring to themselves as a metaphorical family, others make it very real. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Peter Seidler stated prior to his death that he wished for the team to remain in his family "for generations," and declined to elaborate on if that meant his wife would take over after his death. The fight over corporate team ownership is, accordingly, a familial one.
Among all of the legal language in Sheel Seidler's complaint, primarily dedicated to the issue of fiduciary misconduct, is a consistent reiteration of the sanctity of private life, and grand terminology surrounding the ownership of the team. Peter and Sheel Seidler are partners in "life, marriage, and business"; the complaint states that in the wake of Peter Seidler's death, Matthew and Robert Seidler, along with other extended relatives, ostracized Sheel Seidler and her children, including barring them from the owners' box at Petco Park and excluding her from Padres events dedicated to Peter Seidler's legacy.
The brothers are described as "believ[ing] that, as O'Malley male descendants"—Peter Seidler was the grandson of former Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, and nephew of Peter O'Malley, with whom he purchased the Padres in 2012—"they somehow deserve control by virtue of their lineage, as if the Padres were a medieval duchy." In accordance with the duchy metaphor, the phrases "ancestral rights" and "true heirs" are invoked throughout the complaint.
The complaint alleges that part of this ostracism stems from racism. According to the complaint, Robert Seidler's wife, Alecia Seidler, directed "multiple racist, profane, and hateful communications" (in which her husband was cc'd) toward Sheel, who is of Indian descent. One of the comments provided by the complaint reads (with the profanity censored), "Do you really think this family would work for your f***ing purple ass? You are delusional!" Peter Seidler is described as having "different values," as the only sibling to have an interfaith and interracial marriage.
Legal case aside (I am not a lawyer), it is striking how familial conflict plays out so publicly in conjunction with baseball in both the complaint and its repercussions. If there is anything in the category of "rich people family business" that baseball fans have reason to care about, it would be among the owners of their favorite teams. Peter Seidler's method of building a team since becoming chairman in 2020—heavy spending in an attempt to build a World Series roster—has done far more for the Padres franchise than the vast majority of MLB owners will do over their tenure. The complaint ascribes part of the team's success in recruiting players to a "family-centric approach"; while Sheel Seidler is aligned with her late husband's philosophy, the complaint speculates that John Seidler's appointment to control person "may well be part of his efforts to sell, and perhaps relocate, the team, over Sheel's strident objection."
If fans and news outlets are noting that the ownership dispute may stall out the Padres' chance at signing free agents or making trades, the complaint has somehow preempted discourse about MLB-bound star pitcher Roki Sasaki—for whom the Padres are reportedly a spunky underdog candidate—by citing a San Diego Union-Tribune column advocating for Sheel Seidler to be involved in the club's efforts at wooing him. Everything is about baseball, even and especially family.
The full suit can be read below:
