The Baltimore Orioles will "never leave" the city, according to chairman and CEO John Angelos.

Angelos made the declaration Monday in a strongly worded statement that comes in the midst of a family legal battle.

Last week, Louis Angelos filed a lawsuit alleging his brother John was trying to seize control of the team and would relocate the franchise to Nashville, Tennessee.

John Angelos disputed his brother's accusation, saying that the Orioles will stay put "as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over Inner Harbor."

"My mother was born and raised in Northeast Baltimore," he said of Georgia Angelos, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. "... and has worked with my father their entire lives to help the city, including by restoring the club to local ownership and preventing its relocation. For them, as for me, the Orioles will forever play at Oriole Park, and at no time ever have we contemplated anything different."