Restaurant sued for defying virus orders
Novo Cafe, an Italian eatery in Westlake Village, has received numerous citations from L.A. County.
Los Angeles County is suing Novo Cafe, an Italian restaurant in the city of Westlake Village that has racked up scores of citations for violating orders meant to clamp down on the spread of COVID-19.
The county lawsuit, filed last week, stated that Novo Cafe hosted diners both indoors and outdoors last winter, when doing so was prohibited, and continued to operate for months after its public health permit was revoked. The Westlake Village restaurant also failed to ensure that employees wore masks around customers, the suit said.
Novo Cafe’s “actions are putting the health of their workers, customers, and the community at risk,” the county argued in its suit. It is seeking a court injunction to stop the restaurant from continuing to operate in defiance of health orders.
Novo Cafe owner Massimo Forti on Friday declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The restaurant’s owners called the county’s mandates “illegal and inappropriate” in a lawsuit of their own against Westlake Village, which last year revoked the eatery’s city permit for alcohol sales.
In that suit, the restaurant’s owners argued that there had not been any reported coronavirus cases traced to it and that asking staff to enforce mask mandates was like “forcing those personnel to practice medicine without a license.”
When an NBC4 news crew filmed unmasked workers at the restaurant last summer, Forti told them he saw adhering to mask requirements as a “sign of submission.”
The restaurant is one of the businesses that has been most heavily cited for violations of COVID-19 health orders in L.A. County, according to records from the Department of Public Health. Its public health permit was revoked in February, but county inspectors returned to the restaurant throughout the spring, summer and fall to find that it was still operating.
L.A. County has already sued several businesses for flouting COVID-19 orders, including gyms, a party venue and restaurants. Among them were Cronies Sports Grill in Agoura Hills, which reached a settlement with the county in October; Bread & Barley in Covina, which also reached an agreement with the county; and Tinhorn Flats in Burbank, which is facing ongoing litigation after being evicted last year.