Yankees lose appeal in open records case brought by Times Tribune
July 23, 2010 | Filed in: Open
records | Right to Know
Law
BY JOE MCDONALD
The [Wilkes-Barre] Citizens Voice
Call it strike two for the Yankees.
A state appeals court has ruled against the SWB Yankees LLC - the management group for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and PNC Field - in its attempt to block The Times-Tribune from obtaining the paperwork concerning how bids were awarded at the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium in Moosic.
The SWB Yankees LLC first lost its case in Lackawanna County Court before Judge Terrence R. Nealon and has now lost its appeal in Commonwealth Court.
The Yankees had argued that its records were not public because it "does not engage in a governmental function."
The appeals court disagreed, saying the Yankees are ignoring the fact that it "creates revenue for the Commonwealth, operates (in) a public place for the benefit of the Commonwealth, and the bids requested clearly affect the amount of revenue generated by the (Multi-Purpose Stadium) authority," the court said in an opinion filed July 22.
J. Timothy Hinton Jr., the Scranton lawyer representing the newspaper, said the Yankees have 30 days to file an appeal with the state Supreme Court, so the records the paper is seeking will not be opened until at least then.
Hinton said the ruling was a significant win not only for the newspaper but for the taxpayers of Lackawanna County.
"Hopefully, SWB Yankees will now permit access to the financial records concerning the operation of this public stadium and team," Hinton said. "The public has been kept in the dark by SWB Yankees even though 33 percent of the profits derived from stadium operations are supposed to go to the Stadium Authority."
"It's about time they turned over the records," Hinton said.
The [Wilkes-Barre] Citizens Voice
Call it strike two for the Yankees.
A state appeals court has ruled against the SWB Yankees LLC - the management group for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and PNC Field - in its attempt to block The Times-Tribune from obtaining the paperwork concerning how bids were awarded at the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium in Moosic.
The SWB Yankees LLC first lost its case in Lackawanna County Court before Judge Terrence R. Nealon and has now lost its appeal in Commonwealth Court.
The Yankees had argued that its records were not public because it "does not engage in a governmental function."
The appeals court disagreed, saying the Yankees are ignoring the fact that it "creates revenue for the Commonwealth, operates (in) a public place for the benefit of the Commonwealth, and the bids requested clearly affect the amount of revenue generated by the (Multi-Purpose Stadium) authority," the court said in an opinion filed July 22.
J. Timothy Hinton Jr., the Scranton lawyer representing the newspaper, said the Yankees have 30 days to file an appeal with the state Supreme Court, so the records the paper is seeking will not be opened until at least then.
Hinton said the ruling was a significant win not only for the newspaper but for the taxpayers of Lackawanna County.
"Hopefully, SWB Yankees will now permit access to the financial records concerning the operation of this public stadium and team," Hinton said. "The public has been kept in the dark by SWB Yankees even though 33 percent of the profits derived from stadium operations are supposed to go to the Stadium Authority."
"It's about time they turned over the records," Hinton said.