Baseball stadium dispute pitched into court system

? A breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by Van Halen against the Baltimore Orioles seeking at least $2 million from a failed concert deal will go to trial, an attorney for the rock band said.

U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. last week denied the Orioles’ motion for summary judgment, and a trial in District Court in Los Angeles is “imminent,” according to Howard King, who represents Van Halen.

A trial was to have begun this month, King said Wednesday, but the judge became ill. A hearing on the Orioles’ request for summary judgment was held in July, King said, and Byrne handed down the denial on Aug. 4.

The band contends in the lawsuit filed in August 2004 that the baseball team sought to have it perform the first-ever concert inside Camden Yards and then backed out of the deal.