Game room lawsuits will go to trial, judge rules

A jury will decide the case, as U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Katz denied both sides' requests for summary judgment. Neither the University nor the owners of a local video arcade and laundry have succeeded in proving whether the businesses constitute nuisances or not, a federal judge ruled last week in allowing lawsuits involving the two sides to proceed to trial. U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Katz's two rulings -- denying both sides' recent motions for summary judgment -- mean that a federal jury will decide the entire case. The lawsuits are scheduled to get a trial date after Monday. The owners of University Pinball and University Laundry at 4006-4008 Spruce Street sued Penn and the city of Philadelphia last April, accusing the defendants of illegally shutting down the businesses April 18. The University filed a countersuit claiming that the formerly 24-hour businesses attract crime to the edge of campus. The city settled its part of the case last month when it agreed to pay $60,000 to the Schoepe family -- which owns the establishments -- and admit in court documents that the businesses don't constitute a nuisance and did not receive any nuisance citations before April 18. "[T]he city's stipulations that they do not consider the plaintiffs' businesses to be a nuisance? do not preclude the consideration of that issue by this court or a jury," Katz wrote. "Factual issues remain as to whether University Laundry and University Pinball do constitute either a public or a private nuisance." Last Friday, the University filed a motion to bar mention of the city's settlement from the upcoming trial. Katz has not yet ruled on the motion. "To put it bluntly, it appears that plaintiffs wrested certain key admissions from the city defendants -- with the hope that these admissions would be admissible against the nonsettling University defendants at trial -- as the price for achieving a financial resolution that was attractive to the city," states a University court document supporting the motion. University attorneys claim the settlement represents "inadmissible hearsay" that doesn't pertain to the current case between the Schoepes and the University. Schoepe attorney Ronald Shaffer was unavailable for comment yesterday, as was University attorney Roger Cox. In a separate ruling, Katz ordered University attorneys to turn over minutes of 40th Street Action Team meetings. The group of administrators and students is attempting to improve the 40th Street corridor between Sansom Street and Baltimore Avenue. The team was formed last November by Executive Vice President John Fry, who gave a deposition in the case September 15. Fry and other University officials met with Robert Schoepe in October 1996 to discuss safety issues concerning their businesses. Katz also voided a University motion to limit the use of University President Judith Rodin's videotaped deposition of October 17. Shaffer had written the judge that the "plaintiffs do not intend to use Dr. Rodin's deposition for any purpose other than this litigation." The Schoepes sued the University and its chief spokesperson, Ken Wildes, in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court for libel and slander over comments Wildes made in the May 8 issue of the weekly University City Review. The University filed a countersuit similar to the one filed in federal court. The libel case won't get a trial date until December 1998. University Pinball and University Laundry reopened April 25 under a court order on the condition that they remain closed between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. each day

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