U.S. v. Amc Entertainment, Inc., CV 99-01034 FMC(SHX).

• Decision Date: 20 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. CV 99-01034 FMC(SHX).,CV 99-01034 FMC(SHX).
• Citation: 232 F.Supp.2d 1092
• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of California
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. AMC ENTERTAINMENT, INC., American Multi-Cinema, Inc. Defendants.

232 F.Supp.2d 1092

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. AMC ENTERTAINMENT, INC., American Multi-Cinema, Inc. Defendants.

No. CV 99-01034 FMC(SHX).

United States District Court, C.D. California.

November 20, 2002.

Leon W. Weidman, Michele C. Marchand, Suzanne L. Bell, Asst. U.S. Atty., Office of U.S. Attorney Civil Division, Los Angeles, CA, Bill Lann Lee, John L. Wodatch, Gretchen Jacobs, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC, Dov Lutzker, Joseph C. Russo, Kathleen S. Devine, Phyllis M. Cohen, Devine S. Kathleen, Kristan S. Mayer, U.S. Department

of Justice Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

David C. Vogel, Robert J. Harrop, Raymond F. Beagle, Jr., Lathrop & Gage, Kansas City, MO, Gregory F. Hurley, Stacey L. Jaramillo, Paul F. Donsbach, Michael J. Mills, Tasia Marie Scolinos, Kutak Rock, Irvine, CA, for Defendants.

ORDER ON PARTIES' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

COOPER, District Judge.

A movie-theater owner who provides wheelchair seating only in the front rows of the auditorium deprives persons with disabilities of equal access, benefits, and services in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This rather unremarkable proposition has been the subject of extensive litigation and heated debate, culminating in the following Order.

This matter is before the Court on a number of motions. Oral argument was heard on November 18, 2002, at which time the parties were in receipt of the Court's summary of its tentative order.

Specifically, this Order resolves the following motions:

1) the parties' cross-motions for Partial Summary Judgment on the "Line-of-Sight" Issues (docket # 346, 366); the Court hereby grants the Government's Motion, and hereby denies AMC's Motion;

2) the Government's Motion to Strike the September 26, 2002, Declaration of Gregory G. Hurley (docket # 371), which the Court hereby grants in part;

3) the Government's Motion for Summary Judgment regarding Defendants' Affirmative Defenses (docket # 379), which the Court hereby grants.

I. Nature of the Case

This case arises out of the placement of wheelchair seating in Defendants' stadium-style theater complexes. The United States Department of Justice ("the Government") has filed suit against Defendants claiming that the placement of this seating denies persons with disabilities equal access, benefits, and services in violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 — 12189 ("ADA"). The Government is seeking declaratory relief, injunctive relief, compensatory damages on behalf of individual claimants, and imposition of civil penalties.

In resolving the issues currently before it, the Court interprets § 4.33.3 of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines, 28 C.F.R., Pt. 36, Appdx. A, which requires that wheelchair-bound patrons in assembly areas be provided with "lines of sight comparable to those for members of the general public."¹ The Court determines Defendants have violated § 4.33.3 in light of their wheelchair seating placement design. The Court also concludes the Government's articulated position on § 4.33.3 is worthy of the deference generally afforded administrative agencies.

Defendants' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment asks the Court to examine whether due process considerations preclude the Government's position from being applied retroactively. That Motion also concerns issues regarding Defendants' theater complexes that are located in the Fifth Circuit; the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the Government's position on § 4.33.3 in a similar but unrelated case. The Court concludes that due process does not preclude retroactive application of the Government's position, and that issues regarding the theater complexes located in the Fifth Circuit may be addressed in this action.

II. Factual Background²

A. The First Stadium-Style Theater Complex — The Grand

Defendant AMC Entertainment, Inc., and American Multi-Cinema, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AMC (collectively referred to as "AMC"), are corporations with principal places of business in Kansas City, Missouri. AMC operates movie theaters throughout the United States. In 1995, AMC opened a twenty-four screen theater complex in Dallas, Texas, called the Grand Theater 24 ("the Grand").

The Grand was built according to a new type of theater design in which the majority of the seats were located in rows that had been placed on a series of flat, elevated risers or platforms, as opposed to a gradually sloping floor. The result is a series of tiered rows. In addition to the tiered seating, approximately 2 — 4 rows of seats in the front of each auditorium nearest the screen were placed on a sloped floor. Unlike traditional movie theaters, where all the seating is elevated through the use of a sloped floor and accessed by walking up or down an adjacent sloped aisle, the seats in the stadium-style section of the Grand can only be accessed by climbing up stairs to each of the riseredtiers. The seating platforms or risers at the Grand, and at other AMC stadium-style theaters, typically measure 12 to 18 inches in height and elevate each consecutive row of seats up to 18 inches above the immediately preceding row of seats. The entire tiered section of the auditorium is elevated above the sloped floor portion of the auditorium. This tiered-seating design is commonly referred to in the theater business as "stadium-style seating" or "stadium seating." The Grand was a financial success for AMC — breaking AMC's attendance records.³

B. The Popularity of Stadium-Style Theaters

AMC's primary purpose in designing and constructing stadium-style theaters was to provide customers with enhanced, unobstructed lines of sight to the screen. AMC markets its stadium-style theaters as providing enhanced and elevated lines of sight that "change the way ... moviegoers experience the movies." In press releases, advertisements, and other publicity materials, AMC has described stadium seating as providing "unobstructed viewing" through a tiered seating design that "virtually suspends the moviegoer in front of the wall-to-wall screen." The audience is thus "totally enveloped in the motion picture because of the enhanced sight and sound presentation" which, combined with unobstructed views of the screen, guarantees that "all seats" are the "best in the house."

AMC's stadium-style theater complexes have proven to be very popular with the theater-going public who have attended these complexes in greater numbers than AMC's theater complexes with only traditional, sloped-floor theaters. In a recent annual report, AMC stated that these theaters have "become the industry benchmark" and that AMC's customers have "overwhelmingly embraced" the stadium-style theater concept. In addition, accordingly to this report, "[v]irtually every [stadium-style theater complex] that [AMC has] opened has become one of the industry's most successful in terms of attendance and film revenue."

Douglas Seibert, AMC's former Director of Construction for its Northeast and Southeast regions, has stated that the "public generally likes stadium theaters better than sloped-floor theaters." James Beynon, Senior Vice President and Treasurer for AMC stated that "the consumer prefers stadium seating." Overall, AMC's stadium-style theater complexes outperform its traditional sloped-floor theater complexes in terms of revenue, revenue per person, and/or attendance per screen. At the beginning of the fiscal year 1999, the average revenue per customer at a stadium-style theater complex, including ticket sales and concessions, was $6.90, whereas the average revenue per customer at a traditional style theater complex was $6.15. The average annual attendance per screen at the stadium-style theaters complexes was 68,000; the traditional-style theater complexes had 51,000 customers during the same time period.

All but one of the 83 AMC theater complexes that have been constructed or altered after May 1995 have incorporated stadium-style seating. As AMC adds new stadium-style theater complexes it has closed its older, traditional sloped-floor theater complexes. AMC plans to close nine traditional sloped-floor theaters, and for the next couple of years, expects to continue to close approximately nine or ten sloped-floor theaters per year.

Currently, AMC owns and/or operates 84 stadium-style theater complexes nationwide. These complexes generally contain between 12 and 30 screens. Shortly after the opening of the Grand, AMC opened several other stadium-style theater complexes, including the Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills, California, and the Norwalk 20 in Norwalk, California.

C. Wheelchair and Companion Seating Placement

The wheelchair seating and companion seating in all but the four largest auditoriums at the Grand is located solely in the rows nearest the screen on the sloped-floor portion of the auditorium. None of the wheelchair seats or companion seats in these twenty auditoriums are located in the stadium-style section of the auditorium. The majority of the auditoriums at the Promenade 16 theater complex have similar wheelchair and companion seating placement in all but five theaters. The same is true of the wheelchair and companion seating placement in the auditoriums at the Norwalk 20 theater complex in all but three auditoriums.

Only 23.8% of AMC's stadium-style theater auditoriums nationwide have wheelchair seating located within the stadium seating section. Indeed, wheelchair seating is located in the very front row of 17.6% of the auditoriums, and over 30% of the theater complexes have at least one auditorium in which the wheelchair seating is located in the very front row.

In 2001, AMC began constructing and operating theater complexes with "full stadium" seating.⁴

D. Customer Complaints

Almost immediately after the opening of the Grand in 1995, customers with disabilities began complaining about the location of the wheelchair seating....