Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Bar owners in Indianapolis are suing their city and county officials over coronavirus pandemic rules – including a targeted curfew and stricter limits on indoor capacity – they say are strangling their businesses more forcefully than others.
The group of 14 companies, which together operate 20 of the city’s bars, filed a lawsuit in Marion County Superior Court on Sept. 22 against the city of Indianapolis, Mayor Joe Hogsett, the Marion County Health Department and its director and chief medical officer, Dr. Virginia Caine. The plaintiffs claim the government has singled their industry out for greater regulation without just cause and is threatening the bars’ chance of survival.
That equates to a violation of the state’s constitution, which guarantees an equal protection of the rights of all, the lawsuit argues.
Under state law, Indiana’s counties are free to enact stricter pandemic rules than those implemented by the state, and Marion County has done so. The county’s orders have also assigned more stringent rules to bars and nightclubs than restaurants — restaurants and bars that serve food can operate up to 50% of their indoor capacity with no curfew while bars and nightclubs that do not serve food can only operate at 25% indoor capacity and must close between midnight and 5 a.m.
State regulations are allowing bars and restaurants to operate at 50% indoor capacity.
The county’s current pandemic rules have also forbidden live music and dancing in bars.
“The Marion County Public Health Orders … give no medical or scientific justification why bars and nightclubs are treated disparately from other restaurants and food and eating establishments” in their attempt to curb the coronavirus outbreak, the lawsuit says.
There is also no “scientific evidence that COVID-19 is transmitted easier or is more deadly during any particular time of day … that people are more susceptible to the virus when they are drinking instead of eating … that people are more susceptible to the virus when they are dancing as opposed to working out at a gym.”
In addition to attacking the individual pandemic rules for bars and nightclubs and how they differ from those for restaurants and other businesses, the bar owners’ lawsuit takes aim at the bigger picture that is the city and county’s power to continue to impose the temporary regulations to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
The government “derives its authority from ‘emergency powers’ when no ‘emergency’ currently exists,” the lawsuit argues. “The COVID-19 state of emergency was declared over 6 months ago, and COVID-19 is likely to remain active for the foreseeable future, and is in fact now, the ‘new normal.’”
The Indianapolis Star reported the stricter pandemic rules on bars and nightclubs came after Caine said they had become “sites of concern.”
The health official claimed in July that 75% of cases of people violating requirements to wear masks in public happened at bars.
She also “pointed to a rise in coronavirus cases among 20- to 39-year-olds in July, and officials said the [stricter] orders affected places those people were likely to gather, often without masks and social distancing.”
Mark Bode, the deputy communications director for the city of Indianapolis, told the local Fox affiliate, “Mayor Hogsett fully supports the Marion County Public Health Department’s leadership and ongoing health orders, which have slowed the spread of the virus in our city and continue to save lives.”
Bar and restaurant owners across the country have been filing similar class action lawsuits and taking legal action to protest what their owners say is unfair and unlawful regulation by city and state governments in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
For example, just last week the owner of The Graham in Brooklyn, New York, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the midnight curfew he placed on indoor dining in the city.
In that lawsuit, the bar’s owners say Cuomo’s approach has been one of constantly changing, arbitrary and unworkable pandemic rules that are hurting the industry.
Are you a bar or restaurant owner who has been struggling to keep pace with and abide by changes in regulations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic? Is your business hurting because of COVID-19 restrictions in your town or state? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs and proposed Class Members in the Indianapolis pandemic rules lawsuit are represented by Richard C. Bucheri of Poynter & Bucheri LLC.
The Indianapolis Coronavirus Outbreak Rules Class Action Lawsuit is Bar Indy LLC, et al. v. City of Indianapolis, et al., Case No. unknown, in the Marion County Superior Court for the State of Indiana.
Coronavirus Lawsuits & Legal Issues
Since the COVID pandemic shut down the country, Top Class Actions has been keeping you up to date on the latest Coronavirus lawsuits and legal issues.
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association
LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2024 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners
This website is not intended for viewing or usage by European Union citizens.
