Cincinnati Bengals, Inc. v. City of Cincinnati

567 N.E.2d 284, 57 Ohio App. 3d 122, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 40
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 11, 1989
DocketC-870794 and C-880177
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 567 N.E.2d 284 (Cincinnati Bengals, Inc. v. City of Cincinnati) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cincinnati Bengals, Inc. v. City of Cincinnati, 567 N.E.2d 284, 57 Ohio App. 3d 122, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 40 (Ohio Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

Hildebrandt, P.J.

Defendants-appellants, the City of Cincinnati (“city”) and the Cincinnati Reds (“Reds”), appeal from the judgment of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas entered October 19,1987, in which the court granted certain relief as initially demanded by the plaintiffs-appellees, Cincinnati Bengals, Inc. (“Bengals”), under the first claim for relief of the original complaint and most recently set forth in the first claim for relief of the Bengals’ second supplemental complaint, the filing of which was permitted by the court below on August 3, 1987. The substance of the relief granted by the trial court will be discussed hereafter.

The record discloses that on November 29,1967, the city and the Bengals entered into a lease agreement under which the Bengals leased the city’s Riverfront Stadium (“stadium”) for the purpose of exhibiting football games. On December 4,1978, the Bengals filed a complaint against the city in the court below, alleging that the city was guilty of certain breaches of the lease agreement. The myriad pleadings, affidavits, depositions, exhibits and entries that have postdated the Bengals’ original complaint include the Bengals’ amended complaint of May 3, 1982. That pleading sets forth fifteen claims for relief. 1

On April 12, 1983, the city and the Bengals entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which those parties compromised all but the Bengals’ sixth claim for relief under the amended complaint. In that claim the Bengals alleged that the city had failed to comply with the lease provisions concerning the operation of the stadium’s scoreboard and public-address system. Accordingly, an entry dismissing all but the sixth claim for relief, as well as all of the city’s counterclaims, was placed of record on May 2, 1983.

On February 11,1987, the Bengals filed a motion in the court below, seeking, inter alia, a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction enjoining the city from erecting a videoboard and additional advertising panels (hereafter collectively “video-board”) or issuing a building permit for such construction within the stadium. The motion was premised on the allegation that the construction of the videoboard would block the view of spectators, thereby constituting a *124 breach of the Bengals’ lease with the city. On February 23, 1987, an entry was placed of record granting the Bengals’ motion for a temporary restraining order.

On March 12 and 13,1987, the trial court conducted evidentiary hearings on the Bengals’ motion for a preliminary injunction during which the court also considered and granted the city’s motion to add the Reds as a party defendant to the proceedings, which had been filed on March 12, 1987. 2 At the conclusion of the hearings the court announced from the bench that it was denying the Bengals’ motion for preliminary injunction. The court specifically found, based upon the testimony, exhibits, and its personal view of the premises, “that the Bengals will not suffer irreparable injury or that the Bengals have no adequate remedy at law.” Further, the court found that as a result of the construction of the videoboard, one hundred sixty red level (loge) stadium seats would be blocked. The court ordered the city to replace the one hundred sixty seats elsewhere in the stadium prior to the commencement of the Bengals’ 1987 exhibition season. The court further ordered the city to prepare for the possible replacement of an additional two hundred fifty stadium seats to be accomplished prior to the commencement of the Bengals’ 1987 season.

The court indicated that it would withhold a definite ruling on these additional seats until construction of the videoboard was accomplished and the court had personally inspected it. 3

The Bengals next moved the court on March 23, 1987, to reconsider and enter a preliminary injunction. The basis for this motion was that subsequent to the court’s action of March 13, 1987, the Reds removed the existing auxiliary scoreboard from what is described in the record as its original position behind home plate (baseball configuration) and installed two auxiliary scoreboards and advertising panels (hereafter collectively “new auxiliary scoreboards”) directly across from one another. 4 In memoranda and affidavits in support of the motion to reconsider, the Bengals alleged that the new auxiliary scoreboards interfered with the view from one hundred ninety seven plaza-level seats and one hundred twenty club-level seats.

The court conducted a hearing on the motion for reconsideration on July 10, 1987. As a result of the evidence adduced at that hearing the court placed of record its entry of September 4, 1987, ordering, inter alia: (1) the denial of the Bengals’ motion for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Reds and the city from constructing the videoboard contingent upon the city installing five hundred sixty new seats, (2) the removal of the new auxiliary scoreboards at the conclusion of the 1987 baseball season, and (3) the *125 restoration of the original auxiliary scoreboard and clocks.

On July 9,1987, the Bengals filed a motion for leave to file a second supplemental complaint which substantially restated, the allegations set forth in the motion for reconsideration. The court below granted such leave on August 3, 1987. Thereafter, the Reds and the city each moved the court to set those matters pertaining to the videoboard, scoreboards and advertising panels for a hearing on the merits. The court granted those motions on October 13, 1987, thereby generating the merit hearings of October 13 and 14, 1987.

At the conclusion of the merit hearings the court entered a final judgment, journalized on October 19,1987, which substantially reflected the court’s ruling of September 4, 1987. This entry also included a Civ. R. 54(B) certification as other matters remained pending before the court. From that judgment the Reds and the city bring this timely appeal in which the city advances one assignment of error and the Reds assert two assignments. 5

In the city’s sole assignment of error and the Reds’ first assignment of error, it is urged that the trial court, erred to the prejudice of each when it ordered the city to install five hundred sixty new permanent seats in the stadium and by ordering the Reds to remove the new auxiliary scoreboards. We are unpersuaded.

We begin our analysis of this assignment of error by reminding the reader that the order concerning the installation of five hundred sixty additional seats on the field level of the stadium was generated by the installation of the videoboard on the loge level of the stadium. There is substantial evidence in the record that, as a result of the installation of the videoboard, the view from certain seats in that section of the stadium was either totally or partially blocked, in contravention of the 1967 lease between the Bengals and the city. Likewise, there is evidence in the record that the new auxiliary scoreboards diminished the view from certain seats on the plaza and club levels on each side of the stadium between the ten-yard lines for football.

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567 N.E.2d 284, 57 Ohio App. 3d 122, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cincinnati-bengals-inc-v-city-of-cincinnati-ohioctapp-1989.