U., Schoepes settle game room lawsuit

Both sides said last night that a settlement had been reached, 22 months after the suit was filed. No details were released. The two-year legal battle between Penn and the owners of a local video arcade and laundromat ended abruptly last night with the announcement of an unspecified settlement. The owners of the University Pinball and University Laundry at 4006-4008 Spruce Street sued the University and the City of Philadelphia in April 1997, asserting that Penn and the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections conspired to illegally shut down their businesses on April 18, 1997, and violated the business' due-process rights by not giving them notice or a hearing before closing them down. Penn claimed that the the establishments attracted crime to the edge of campus as justification for its decision. In one February 1997 incident, a student was assaulted by two men inside the arcade, and one of the assailants then allegedly kicked a University Police officer in the head. The University also claimed that it should not be a party to the suit because all it did was exercise its First Amendment right to petition the government. But the plaintiffs responded -- and U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz agreed -- that Penn did more than just ask the government for help, since a University Police officer accompanied city officials in closing the businesses down. In a terse, 88-word statement released last night jointly by the University and the Schoepe family -- which owns both establishments as well as several other properties in the vicinity of 40th and Spruce streets -- the parties said they settled both the original claim and a libel suit that was filed a month later against chief University spokesperson Ken Wildes for comments he made about the businesses in a local newspaper. The suit had been stuck in a federal appeals court for over a year since the University appealed a lower court decision not to award it summary judgment in the case. The original complaint, filed by the Schoepe family and its property-owning company, We Inc., named Penn, University Police Chief Maureen Rush, the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections and L&I; Director of Business Regulatory Enforcement Rudolph Pagliaga as defendants. The city settled its part of the suit in September 1997 by agreeing to pay the Schoepes $60,000 and admitting that the establishments did not violate any laws. Neither Wildes, University attorney Roger Cox nor Schoepe lawyer Ronald Shaffer could be reached for comment last night. The statement said that both parties "expressed satisfaction" with the settlement.