Daily News from New York, New York • 363

i tr -i'n i men's sale staging Hayes! Up All this at savings: jackets, storm coats, jeans and dress slacks! A bad scene, says lawyer By OWEN MORITZ In a move certain to set back and possibly kill the proposed $240 million Portman Hotel, a Manhattan lawyer filed suit yesterday to force the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider landmark status for the Helen Hayes Theater on W. 46th St The theater is due to be razed to make way for the hotel, a structure the Koch administration is promoting as the "centerpiece" of a revived Times Square and theater district But yesterday, attorney Harold Suckenik, chairman of a group he calls New Yorkers to Preserve the Theater District filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court "to stop the appalling rape of our city's culture and one of its most sustaining assets" theaters in general and the 69-year-old Helen Hayes in particular. Suckenik cited a staff report done in April 1978 for the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommending that the theater be included on the National Regis- try of Landmarks and made a New York City landmark. Report gathers dust The landmarks commission has never acted on the staff report, nor is it expected to act in the near future, and a commission official said the landmark recommendation never got past an executive board meeting. But Suckenik wants the court to require the commission to act, and gave every indication that he expected the commission to approve landmark status.

Landmark status, under the city's tough preservation code, would mean the building could not be tampered with, forcing the city and Portman interests to JN 0 I -v. City court summons part is issued a death notice either under take a costly redesign or drop the project Suckenik's action also could force the federal hand. The feds must still approve a $15 million Urban Development Action Grant the final step in the approval process of the hoteL The government is required by law to take into account whether a building involved in a federal application for money also is a landmark on the National Registry of Landmarks. Those close to the long negotiations for the hotel say city, state and federal officials had apparently worked out a compromise to save artifacts from the playhouse and record it as landmark while permitting its demolition'. That compromise could be in danger of collapse if the movement to rescue the Helen Hayes develops.

Opened in 1910 The theater, on W. 46th St. off Broadway, was opened in 1910 as the Fulton and renamed in 1955 for the first lady of the New York theater. The staff report noted: "Due to the superb architectural quality of the building, it would seem, imperative that the proposed hotel be redesigned to incorporate the Helen Hayes Theater within the complex and to exclude it from demolition." Three other theaters also are scheduled to be demolished as part of the groundwork for the Portman the Bijou and Morosco theaters and the Victoria movie house along with the Hotel Piccadilly. "It's one massive giveaway," said Suckenik.

The 52-story hotel is due to rise on Broadway between 45th and 46th Sts. and is to contain a theater to replace the Helen Hayes. The hotel will be the flagship for the Trust Houses Forte Hotels. ically pocketing up to $600 and $700 a day in cash bribes and accepting gifts of clothing, appliances and other items in return for dismissing, discarding or destroying summonses and expediting cases. Meanwhile, studies done by the Office of Court Administration revealed that an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million summonses dating back to 1971 have never been answered and that the over-all return rate on summonses is only about 30, according to Paula Glassman, a staff aide to Judge Milonas.

More than 250,000 delinquent summons notices were mailed in 1978 and more than 28 of these were returned by the postal service as nndeliverable, according to other court studies. Repeated complaints Meanwhile, the aging facilities at 346 Broadway have been the subject of repeated complaints from judges, court personnel and others. Seating is scarce and defendants are often forced to stand in line, waiting their turn in court. Wails and ceilings are pockmarked with holes, toilet facilities are inadequate, heating is erratic and air conditioning is nonexistent. "We've been campaigning for three years to get rid of this cesspool," said Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association.

Milonas said that the ultimate goal is to decriminalize most summons violations. "Judges have the power to jail, but they seldom do," said Glassman. "When cases are transferred to the Environmental Control Board, they will be handled by administrative law judges as civil matters." One of the major problems has been the lack of an effective enforcement operation. Warrants must be executed by the overburdened warrant squad of the Police Department, which "has enough pbms.ernig, warrants on the real sale $60 A. Irridescent Broadway bomber jacket, orig.

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(D, 1 83) Sale 13.99: famous maker polyesterwool blend dress slacks, formerly $22. Assorted looks, all in a beautiful, easy care mix of fabric. Many colors, too! 32-42 waist; S.R.L length. (D. 1 82) By ROBERT CRANE and NEAL HIRSCHFELD After years of corruption, inefficiency and the crumbling of its physical facilities, the centralized summons part of the city's Criminal Court at 346 Broadway will be closed and thousands of summons cases will be farmed out to either the Environmental Control Board or borough Criminal Courts, court officials disclosed yesterday.

Approximately 40 of all summons cases, particularly those pertaining to peddling and environmental infractions, will be shifted to the Environmental Control Board, according to E. Leo Milonas, administrative judge for the city's courts. That board, which now processes 3,000 violations each month, is expected to increase its workload tenfold, said Deputy Mayor for Operations Nathan Leventhal. The other 60 of the 540,000 annual summons cases cases involving fare beaters, marijuana smoking, ticket scalping, Parks Department violations and other minor infractions will be funneled back to the Criminal Court buildings in each borough, Milonas said. Officials hope that the new program will be operating by next April 1, allowing them to discontinue all operations at 346 Broadway.

A major headache The centralized summons part, which came into existence during the city's fiscal crisis, has become a major headache for court and city officials in recent years. Last July, a court clerk and two other employes were arrested at their desks on charges of taking bribes from undercover agents. A day before the that a. macys MerVrClothiriocrt. Herald SauaieortA and the Macv's near vou.