Breaking: City denied new trial in Boy Scouts HQ case, must pay legal fees
A federal judge ruled today that the city must pay the Boy Scouts $877,122.07 in legal fees and denied the city's request for a new trial in the ongoing saga.
Breaking: City denied new trial in Boy Scouts HQ case, must pay legal fees
Catherine Lucey
Note: This post has been updated to include comments from the Mayor and the Boy Scouts' attorney.
A federal judge ruled today that the city must pay the Boy Scouts $877,122.07 in legal fees and denied the city's request for a new trial in the ongoing saga over the city's efforts to evict the Scouts from their headquarters due to anti-gay policies.
The city now must pay up because Judge Ronald Buckwalter denied their request for a new trial. Mayor Nutter yesterday said the city was reviewing the opinion, calling the legal bill a "significant expense."
The Scouts and the city have spent years unsuccessfully trying to resolve this conflict, rooted in the local Boy Scouts' refusal to denounce their national organization's anti-gay stance. The headquarters at 22nd and Winter Streets was built by the Scouts on city-owned land.
After the Scouts successfully went to court and blocked a city effort to evict them -- based on the city's anti-discrimination policies -- the two sides reached a deal where the Scouts would buy the building for $500,000 and absolve the city from paying their legal fees. But legislation to authorize the deal languished in City Council and the Scouts scrapped the deal earlier this year.
Bill McSwain, the attorney representing the Scouts, said they wanted to complete that deal.
"We would have been happy with it, but it hit an impasse because City Council refused to vote for it," McSwain said.
Now, the city is instead on the line for a big payout to the Boy Scouts. And the Scouts remain in their long-time home, which is rent-free.
Nutter stressed that the city still does not condone the Scouts' national policy barring homosexuals.
"We do not as a city support that kind of behavior," he said. "We've tried to take a number of steps to get the Boy Scouts out of a city related building."
McSwain said the local chapter of the Boy Scouts has never discriminated.
Hey Philly, why don't you tackle real crime like gun violence and assault.— palmyra21- comments censored? i guess showing the hypocrisy of the administration is not permitted by Osberg et al.— kornbread
- Many inner city young boys often do not have a male role model in their life. It is a shame City Council, specifically Darrell Clark cowers to a minority. Yes, the national scouting organization does not encourage gay Scout Masters but the local organization does. This should be about the young boys, not specific adult insecurities including Darrell Clark's.— Earl J
Comment removed.- Once again, the Confederacy of Dunces proves why they are joint and severally, the laughing stock of PA. They should take a page from Philadelphia's good friend, the Japanese and resign en masse. It would take the tax paying voters of Philly several years to note their absence.— axxell
- Uh, no. The guys in Harrisburg, are the idiots. Corbett and his republican dunces. Philadelphia is a wonderful city and it's well run thanks to Mayor Nutter — tynol10
- You must be new here. Welcome. What time did your bus get in this morning? — Echo
- The Philly Gay Lobby: "Make it hard for us and we'll hold it against you"— tooly
- Comment removed.
- Next time, ohh I think thats today, the city wants to raise your taxes again you can thank these fools.— alsdkjk
- Bigotry and hatred won.
So yes, the scouts won.— JeffJenk - Instead of picking a fight with the Boy Scouts perhaps the city could have more judiciously employed its resources to fight filth and crime.— Disco Dave
- Yes, the Boy Scouts are a private organization and are entitled to set their on restrictons on membership. However, people have a right not to support the Scouts because of their restrictions. See how that works? The city is trying to stop their financial "support" for the Scouts because of their bigoted stance on homosexuality.— tuttysmom
- Comment removed.
- I think this is the first time in US history that a private organization has not had their rights taken away by the government. Although this is a sad loss for the gay community, I really respect this judge's decision to not force government into private business.— LeavePhillyNow
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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