Court upholds closing of eatery
Crack’d Egg violated state’s mask mandate
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Friday refused to reverse a lower court ruling that shut down a Brentwood restaurant for not adhering to the governor’s order requiring COVID-19 masks for employees and patrons.
A three-judge panel upheld Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay Jr., who had ruled in favor of the county Health Department in its battle with the Crack’d Egg.
The Health Department said the restaurant wasn’t complying with requests to obey the mask mandates that Gov. Tom Wolf issued in July 2020 to stem the pandemic and ordered the business closed the following month.
But the Health Department learned on social media that owner Kimberly Waigand intended to remain open. When county inspectors discovered the Crack’d Egg was still operating without anyone wearing masks, the Health Department sought an injunction from Judge McVay to shut it down.
The restaurant and its lawyers said that the governor’s orders were unconstitutional. Judge McVay held a three-day hearing and on Feb. 3 ruled in favor of the county, ordering the restaurant to be closed until it complied with the mask mandate.
The Crack’d Egg then appealed to Commonwealth Court.
Writing for the panel, Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer said that the state Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the governor’s emergency authority to impose the COVID-19 restrictions as he did.
The judge wrote that the high court “has already interpreted Pennsylvania’s Emergency Code and found that the Emergency Code is a valid exercise of the police power, does not violate the separation of powers
doctrine, and grants ‘broad powers’ to the Governor.” She said the Commonwealth Court cannot say that Judge McVay’s order was “palpably erroneous or misapplied,” so the court “will not interfere with the decision of the trial court.”
“We are grateful that the panel considered our arguments and took the time to issue a lengthy opinion, but we believe that the decision is wrong,” said Crack’d Egg attorney Sy Lampl in a statement.
“Since this case
involves important constitutional issues, we intend to seek an en banc argument before the entire
court.”