Platt Amusement Arcade, Inc. v. Joyce

316 F. Supp. 298, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10526
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 18, 1970
DocketNo. 70-929
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 316 F. Supp. 298 (Platt Amusement Arcade, Inc. v. Joyce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Platt Amusement Arcade, Inc. v. Joyce, 316 F. Supp. 298, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10526 (W.D. Pa. 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

WEIS, District Judge.

The continuing uncertainty about the proper procedures to be followed in obscenity cases brings another matter in that category to this court. On July 27, 1970 police officers from the City of Pittsburgh raided three establishments owned by the corporate plaintiffs, Platt Amusement Arcade, Inc., Sneak-A-Peak, Inc., and seized a quantity of motion picture films which were used in the projectors for this “peep show” type of operation. The seizures were made pursuant to search warrants secured from the chief magistrate of the City of Pittsburgh on affidavit of a police officer describing the type of materials as being obscene and after the magistrate and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County viewed films of similar characteristics previously purchased from the plaintiffs’ establishments by the officer.

In the course of the raid the individual plaintiffs were arrested and charged with violation of the Pennsylvania Obscenity Statute, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and corrupting the morals of a minor. Two sets of prosecutions are now pending in the state court, the preliminary hearings having been scheduled but not yet held.

The first of the prosecutions are those based upon the movies purchased by the police a few days before the raid and for which summons were issued without arrests pursuant to the provisions of the [300]*300Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. The second set of prosecutions arise from the arrests occurring on the night of the “raid”.

The plaintiffs have come to this court asking for:

(1) Return of the movies seized on July 27, 1970;
(2) An injunction against prosecution of both series of criminal actions in the state courts;
(3) An injunction enjoining future prosecutions on the claim of harrassment by the city authorities who allegedly threatened to continue arrests for similar offenses;
(4) A request to convene a three judge statutory court to pass on the constitutionality of:
(a) the Pennsylvania Law on obscenity;
(b) Pennsylvania Statutes relating to corrupting the morals of a minor and contribution to the delinquency of a minor.
(5) Damages for interruption of the business of the corporate plaintiffs at one location for a number of days following the “raid”.

The City of Pittsburgh, the actual, although not the named defendant, in advance of the hearing agreed to return all of the films except approximately twenty which were duplicates of those in stock at the plaintiffs’ “arcade”; those purchased by the police officers; and the one film which was in a projector allegedly being viewed by two 16 year old youths at the time of the raid.

Unquestionably, the law regarding obscenity is in a period of change and there is a great deal of confusion regarding both the standards to be utilized ill determining obscenity and the proper procedure to be followed in instituting various forms of legal action. The situation has resulted in the large number of eases coming before the courts and the consequent plethora of opinions. A recent precedent in this field is not one occurring within years, months or weeks, but rather days.

The Supreme Court requirement of prior adversary hearing, as enunciated in the case of Quantity of Copies of Books v. Kansas, 378 U.S. 205, 84 S.Ct. 1723, 12 L.Ed.2d 809, has been applied most recently by the Court of Appeals of this circuit in Cambist Films, Inc. v. Duggan, 3 Cir., 420 F.2d 687, and we feel compelled by that ruling to require that the City return all the films to the plaintiff owners, except those purchased by the police officers.

We do note that the films involved in this case were not those of the full length type designed for theater exhibition as in the Cambist v. Duggan matter but rather fall into a category of objects which are made available for public viewing but only on an individual basis. It was because of the concept that a large number of people could be expected to view a nationally distributed motion picture that the Court of Appeals in Bethview Amusement Corp. v. Cahn, 2d Cir., 416 F.2d 410, concluded that the Books v. Kansas doctrine applied. That same Appeals Court followed a consistent line of reasoning in Astro Cinema Corp. Inc. v. Mackell, 2 Cir., 422 F.2d 293, but recognized the distinction between the seizure of a single book, which would have a very limited effect upon the public, and the result of the suppression of a motion picture being shown in a commercial theater. It is our conclusion that the “peep show” type of operation does involve a sufficient number of customers, albeit of dubious taste, so that the Cambist v. Duggan decision must apply.

However, we do recognize the problems faced by the state in producing evidence in court to obtain convictions for violations of its criminal obscenity statutes. Most of the decisions relying on the prior adversary hearing requirement give scant consideration to the serious practical problems confronting the prosecutors in securing necessary evidence. It is naive indeed to expect wholehearted and good faith cooperation by prospective defendants to make such evi[301]*301dence available in the absence of some type of statutory or judicial compulsion.

The prior adversary hearing requirement involved in a massive seizure case like Books v. Kansas, supra, or motion picture censorship procedures as in Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 85 S.Ct. 734, 13 L.Ed.2d 649, assumes different proportions when applied to a routine criminal prosecution. Only small quantities of the offending material are needed for use as evidence in a criminal trial and such evidentiary purposes do not suppress the use of copies of the same or similar material. The prior adversary hearing rule in criminal cases applied in a blanket and non-critical fashion without any consideration of the surrounding circumstances is hardly a satisfactory doctrine.

One solution which has been proposed is set out in the case of Tyrone, Inc. v. Wilkinson, 4 Cir., 410 F.2d 639, cert, denied 396 U.S. 985, 90 S.Ct. 478, 24 L.Ed.2d 449, Bethview v. Cahn, supra, and Metzger v. Pearcy, 7 Cir., 393 F.2d 202. While the courts in those cases required that the materials in controversy be returned to the owners, they did approve the practice of requiring the defendants in the criminal actions to produce the motion picture films for the reasonable use of the prosecution in the preparation of, and use at time of trial. This procedure appears to strike a reasonable balance between the rights of the respective parties and one which we choose to follow in this case.

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Related

State v. LITTLE ART CORPORATION
204 N.W.2d 574 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1973)
Johnson v. City of Rochester
197 N.W.2d 244 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1972)
United States v. 50 Magazines
323 F. Supp. 395 (D. Rhode Island, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
316 F. Supp. 298, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10526, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/platt-amusement-arcade-inc-v-joyce-pawd-1970.