Ailing Maple Leaf Owner Ballard Ruled Mentally Incompetent by Judge

TORONTO — Harold Ballard, the ailing owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and once one of the key figures in the NHL, was ruled to be mentally incompetent by a district court judge on Wednesday.

Judge Donna Haley made her decision after reviewing reports from two doctors and two psychiatrists who examined the 86-year-old Ballard in his hospital room in Miami.

The multi-millionaire, who also owns Maple Leaf Gardens, his team’s home arena, checked into a hospital in the Cayman Islands last month and was later transferred to Miami Baptist Hospital suffering from kidney failure.

The judge backed an application by his three children, Bill, Harold and Mary Elizabeth Flynn, that a guardian be appointed to manage his personal affairs.