Appeals ruling favors AMC

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. won a federal appeals court ruling, sending back to a lower court a lawsuit over changes required at its stadium-style movie theaters to accommodate people using wheelchairs.

AMC, the Kansas City, Mo.-based theater operator controlled by J.P. Morgan Partners and Apollo Management, agreed in 2006 to pay $300,000 to settle a Department of Justice case claiming its stadium theaters failed, under requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, to provide adequate “line of sight” seating for the disabled.

After the settlement, the company appealed a Los Angeles federal court order specifying how it must change 96 multiplexes containing 1,993 theaters.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday sent the case back to the lower court, saying AMC may not be required to change theaters built before 1998, when the Justice Department first explained the viewing angle requirements under federal law.

The lower court’s order “requires modifications to multiplexes that were designed or built before the government gave fair notice of its interpretation” of the Americans With Disabilities Act’s requirements, which amounts to a violation of AMC’s due process rights, according to the opinion.

Stadium-style seats are placed on risers to provide unobstructed views with improved viewing angles.

The Justice Department argued that in some theaters, moviegoers can access stadium-style seats only if they can climb stairs, relegating wheelchair users to inferior seating in the front.