Anaheim : City and Angels Continue Efforts to Settle Lawsuit

Representatives of the city and the California Angels later this week are to resume a court-ordered settlement conference in their dispute involving Anaheim Stadium. The conference could end with the setting of a trial date if no agreement is reached.

Both parties have been meeting since Friday with Orange County Superior Court Judge Sam Taylor in efforts to settle one of three lawsuits that have marked an ongoing feud between the baseball team and its host city.

City Manager William O. Talley said Tuesday that he expects the issue to go to trial.

“I hope that we can settle, but I’m not optimistic considering what I saw yesterday,” Talley said on Tuesday.

Talley would not elaborate, but said, “The city wants to settle it, the city is making concessions.” The Angels, he said, are not.

Angels attorney Don Morrow said the ball team is willing to negotiate. “We would like nothing better than to settle the problem and all other issues. The question is, on whose terms,” Morrow said.

Representatives of both sides said Tuesday that they could not discuss the settlement conference because the judge asked them not to. The conference is to resume Friday.

The lawsuit at issue concerns expenses the city wants the Angels to pay, such as a standby ambulance, dugout security and staffing of the stadium area. The city discovered the “free services” in its lease with the Angels after the team sued the city to block the building of a parking garage on the stadium’s parking lot.

The parking lot development plan was meant to lure the National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams to Anaheim, but it provoked the wrath of Angels owner Gene Autry, who said it would hurt attendance of baseball games. The parking lot lawsuit, filed in 1983, fueled battles over other issues, including revenues from ticket sales and concessions.