Opinion ID: 653631
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Scienter Evidence

Text: 39 First, the Mayor had the garage closed on December 4, 1990, without conducting any load tests. Load testing is the engineering procedure of placing weights upon a structure and studying in minute detail the behavior of the structure. The Philadelphia Building Code (PBC) has adopted the BOCA National Code, Philadelphia v. Board of License & Inspection Review, 139 Pa.Cmwlth. 240, 244 n. 2, 590 A.2d 79, 82 n. 2, appeal denied, 529 Pa. 625, 600 A.2d 540 (1991), which provides for load testing to resolve any reasonable doubt as to the stability or load carrying capacity of a completed building. Id., 590 A.2d at 82 & n. 4. Dr. Mete Sozen, the chairman of the American Concrete Institute, testified in this case: [I]f there is controversy ... then typically the test is used on the assumption that one test is worth a thousand opinions. He also stated that the load test is the final arbiter, the final step in any dispute about safety or serviceability of a structure. In fact, Michael Brainerd, the City's independent engineer, testified before the arbitration panel on February 16, 1990, that load testing was the only way to determine whether a structure was unsafe. 40 Thus, if the imminent collapse of the garage was what motivated the Mayor and other high City officials to close the garage, they should have performed load testing, as they had on prior occasions. Because the City closed the garage without conducting any load tests or any meetings or written communications with any official or representative of Parkway concerning any developing safety questions on the condition of the garage, the jury could reasonably have found the City's stated reason for the closing quite suspect. 41 In fact, extensive load tests were conducted in March, 1989, and again between December 17, 1990, and January 4, 1991. These tests revealed that the garage was able to withstand more than four times the maximum possible live load of cars and pedestrians that could occupy the garage at any given time. The latter load test, which proved that the garage was not in danger of collapse, was conducted only 13 days after the Mayor closed the garage. 42 Furthermore, the Mayor ordered the garage closed less than three weeks after Parkway had complied with specific repairs previously ordered by the City. On October 5, 1990, the City closed three floors of the garage for what it cited as safety reasons--the spoiling of the concrete and the rusting of the reinforcement rods--and not the issue of load capacity. On October 11 and 12, Parkway complied with a modification by the City that the monitoring be done on a continual basis as opposed to at least once a month. Parkway received written approval of the repairs from City officials on October 19, 1990. The City stipulated that Parkway conducted the repairs in response to that violation with our approval and we approved all the work. Pursuant to its agreement, Parkway completed the last repair on November 14, 1990. The City permitted Parkway to reopen the garage, thus apparently concluding that the garage was in no danger of imminent collapse. 43 In the meantime, the Authority had consulted with its engineer, Brainerd, while repairs were still in process. On November 1, 1990, it had obtained a letter from Brainerd in anticipation of its and the City's plan to close the garage. Therefore, while certain City officials were approving Parkway's repairs, others were concomitantly conducting meetings in a continuing effort to close the garage, adding to the suspect nature of the defendants' activities. 44 Moreover, the jury could have reasonably found that the City's and the Authority's actions leading up to the closing of the garage belie a proper motive for the closing. The City closed the garage on December 4th purportedly because it was in imminent danger of collapse. Imminent danger of collapse, as defined by the BOCA National Code and the PBC means: 45 When, in the opinion of the Code official, there is actual and immediate danger of failure or collapse of a building or structure or any part thereof which would endanger life, or when any structure of part of a structure has fallen and life in endangered by the occupation of the building structure.... 46 Philadelphia v. Board of L & I, 590 A.2d at 82. 47 The City cited three bases for its decision to close the garage: (1) the two letters from Brainerd, the Authority engineer, written on November 1st and 27th; (2) the November 20th letter of Martin L. Liberman, Chief Civil Engineer for the City's Public Property Department, which is the department that owns the garage; and (3) the walk through tour of the garage conducted by Wismer, the Deputy Commissioner of L & I. 48 Although Parkway was at the time in the process of negotiating and repairing the garage following the October 5th closing, and the arbitration hearings were in process, Parkway Authority's attorneys met with the L & I Commissioner Kligerman and other city officials as early as October 9, 1990, including their solicitors. Following that meeting, Brainerd, the Parking Authority's consulting engineer, was requested to put his findings concerning the garage in writing. Brainerd provided a letter summary which Fineman transmitted to the City Solicitor on November 5, 1990. This letter did not suggest that the City close the garage. Also, he did not send a copy to Parkway or any of its representatives. 49 On November 18, 1990, just four days after Parkway had completed all of its repairs pursuant to the October Agreement and L & I inspectors had found them satisfactory, Fineman received a call from the Mayor's Chief of Staff to attend a meeting that day at the Mayor's office. Among those present at the meeting were the Mayor, Commissioner of the L & I Kligerman, Commissioner of Public Property Perez, the City Solicitor, and Fineman. Parkway had no notice of the meeting and had no representative present. Those present discussed Brainerd's letter. 50 Fineman testified at trial that in the course of the discussion, the Mayor said that he had read Brainerd's letter of November 1, and that if Brainerd believed the garage should be closed, he ought to put that into a letter. The next day Fineman telephoned Brainerd to inform him of the substance of the meeting in the Mayor's office the previous day and the Mayor's position with respect to Brainerd's November 1st letter. 4 51 Brainerd followed up Fineman's telephone call by revising his original letter on November 27, 1990. The revised letter substantially reiterated Brainerd's letter of November 1st, but contained an additional paragraph stating, for the first time, that the garage should be closed. 52 Interestingly, Brainerd had not conducted any further investigation, research, or inspection of the garage between the time he drafted the first letter, in which he did not opine that the garage should be closed, and the time he drafted the revised letter, which now included the recommendation to close the garage. Thus, it was reasonable for the jury in this case to conclude that Brainerd's revised letter that suggested that the garage be closed was really a response to the Mayor's request to find a way to terminate Parkway's lease in order to realize economic gain for the City and the Authority. 53 In anticipation of a forthcoming meeting with the Mayor, Liberman issued a report on the garage on November 20, 1990. The report stated that he had reviewed an engineering report of A & R Engineering of April 3, 1987, the letters of Carl Walker Engineers dated November 19, 1990, and a letter from the engineering firm of Simpson, Gumpertz, & Heger of November 1, 1990. Based on these sources, Liberman's report recommended that the garage be closed immediately and abandoned or reconstructed. 54 However, Liberman's report did not state that the garage was in imminent danger of collapse. Also, his recommendation is inconsistent with his conclusion at a meeting a few days before with Deputy Commissioner of L & I, Wismer, and Assistant Director Kham, of the City's Architecture and Engineering Division, that they should withhold any decision concerning the continued safety of the garage until they receive the result of the load tests to be conducted in January 1991. In fact, Liberman testified at the trial that, although not asked by his superiors for his views at the time, it was his opinion on December 4th that there was no probability at that time of an imminent collapse of the garage. He also stated that his opinion that the garage should be closed was based entirely on the now suspect Brainerd letter. 55 On November 30th, Kligerman, Liberman, and Wismer met with Managing Director Pingree to brief him and a representative of the City's legal department on these developments. They all concluded that the garage was no longer safe and should be closed. The next morning the Managing Director met with the Mayor to report the substance of the meeting the day before. The City gave no notice of those meetings to Parkway. Several days later, on December 3rd, Liberman and Deputy Commissioner Wismer decided to walk through the garage. On the basis of his visual inspection of the cracking of the new top surface concrete, Wismer now concluded that, without ordering another load test, the garage was in imminent danger of collapse. This testimony contradicted his pre-trial deposition that was read to the jury, where he testified that Liberman's letter of November 20th was the sole basis for the closure notice. 56 It was also reasonable for the jury to determine that Wismer's testimony was incredible, and that the Mayor's true motive for closing the garage was economic. Wismer, an L & I official and hardly an impartial observer, took no pictures of the supposed damage that he saw, nor did he document his inspection. He did not notify Parkway that he had found damaged parts of the garage. Wismer also did not exercise his right to close the garage upon allegedly finding it to be in dangerous condition. Finally, Wismer did not mention this alleged tour through the garage as a basis for the garage closing during his pretrial deposition testimony. Thus, the jury could reasonably have found the testimony of Brainerd, Liberman, and Wismer to be mere attempts to cover up the Mayor's true motive for closing the garage. 57 A few days later, on the afternoon of December 3, 1990, major City and Parking Authority officials again met with Mayor Goode to discuss the closing of the garage. The meeting took place at the Mayor's office, and present were the Mayor, Managing Director Pingree, the City's highest legal officer, the deputy for the Public Property Department, the Authority's lawyers, Fineman and Bach, and Fitzgerald, the Authority's Executive Director. Again they gave no notice of this meeting to Parkway. The Mayor ordered that the garage be closed. Thus, the strange circumstances leading up to the garage closing also could have lead a reasonable jury to conclude that the Mayor knew of and personally possessed improper motives for closing the garage.