Amusement games lawsuit dismissed after state lifts ban

A lawsuit against Ohio Health Director Amy Acton regarding the prohibition of amusement games at bars and restaurants has been dismissed as the issues at hand have been resolved to the plaintiffs’ satisfaction, attorney Orville Reed said.

Reed, an attorney at Akron-based Stark & Knoll, was representing 20 businesses over the prohibition of amusement games in establishments as part of the state’s reopening plan. The state has since rolled back that order.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported June 8 that changes to the public health order for bars and restaurants was quietly revised Friday, June 5.

The revised order was posted on the state’s novel coronavirus website June 8.

Revisions included allowing for amusement games like billiards, pinball, video and arcade games as long as social distancing and sanitation guidelines are followed.

The plaintiffs filed the suit May 20, arguing the prohibition issued by the Ohio Department of Health “without any basis to support the conclusion that the patrons of bars, restaurants and bowling alleys cannot safely participate in such games.”

They further argued the prohibition was “even more constitutionally suspect because it exempts state-supported lottery kiosks found in bars and bowling alleys.”

The plaintiffs were a mixture of bars, restaurants and coinoperated entertainment vendors

from around the state.

Willoughby’s Garage Bar was the only Lake County business involved as a plaintiff in the suit.

Named as defendants along with Acton and the Ohio Department of Health were Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the Lake County General Health District, which enforces the health directives in the county.

Stark & Knoll attorneys Reed and David Hilkert on June 2 filed a memorandum demanding a preliminary injunction hearing. They argued the businesses they represented continued to suffer extraordinary damages from the prohibition.

The following day a preliminary injunction hearing was scheduled for June 9.

That hearing, scheduled to be held before Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge John P. O’Donnell was later canceled as the case is no longer going forward.

An Ohio Department of Health spokesperson declined comment on the dismissal.

O’Donnell is assigned to another lawsuit filed against Acton.

In that case, filed June 4 in Lake County Common Pleas, eight bars and restaurants argue

the health director’s orders relating to dine-in service impose “vague regulations and laws against their patrons, and, which if not enforced, expose the restaurant and bar owners to constitutional strict criminal penalties and/or reprisal for conduct of others that they have no reasonable control over.”

That suit was filed by Beachwood-based firm Connick Law. All but one of the plaintiffs is a Northeast Ohio-based establishment. Eastlake’s Diamondback Bar and Grill and Willoughby’s Frank and Tony’s are plaintiffs. Other plaintiffs include Cleveland-based Harry Buffalo and TownHall.

Plaintiffs are seeking judgment that would bar the state from imposing criminal, civil or equitable penalties for non-compliance with the health director’s orders.

Dine-in service at Ohio bars and restaurants resumed May 21.

An Ohio Department of Health spokesperson previously told The News-Herald the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The amusement games lawsuit was filed the same day that another Lake County Common

Pleas Court judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing gyms to reopen immediately.

Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Eugene A. Lucci ruled in favor of the 35 gyms across the state that filed a suit against Dr. Amy Acton prohibiting her and those responsible for enforcing her directives from “imposing or enforcing penalties solely for non-compliance with the director’s order” against gyms and fitness centers, “so long as they operate in compliance with all applicable safety regulations, whether those in the state’s order, the state’s supplemental guidelines governing businesses like those of the plaintiffs in this case.”

Lucci wrote that Acton has “acted in an impermissible arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive manner without procedural safeguards.”

“(Acton) has quarantined the entire people of the state of Ohio for much more than 14 days,” Lucci wrote.

“The director has no statutory authority to close all businesses including plaintiffs’ gyms, which she deems non-essential for a period of two months.”