A federal district court judge in Syracuse today allowed a lawsuit brought by caterers challenging the state’s 50-person limit on social gatherings to move forward.
Senior District Court Judge Frederick Scullin denied the state’s motion to dismiss the complaint of Bill & Ted’s Riviera Inc. and Partition Street Project LLC. The court ruled that the complaint contains “sufficient factual matter” to “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”
The court, however, denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the plaintiffs did not establish a likelihood of success on the merits of their Equal Protection Clause claim.
The complaint alleged that the state is arbitrarily treating caterers differently from restaurants under the COVID-19 restrictions because restaurants are not limited to 50 people on premises. The court cited the declaration of the state health commissioner concerning the differences between restaurant service and catering service.
Events at catering halls are more typically what the state calls “super-spreader” events, where guests are generally family and friends who all know each other and closely interact and mingle together, while restaurant-goers, other than the immediate party, are generally strangers who don’t mix with one another, according to declarations filed in both lawsuits by New York State Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker.
Citing a similar declaration and legal precedent about the lawful exercise of the state’s police power, U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny last month dismissed the first of the caterers’ federal lawsuits, Luke’s Catering Service et al v. Cuomo. The court in that case ruled that the governor’s executive order satisfies constitutional requirements and must be upheld.
The court in today’s ruling also declined to certify the case as a class action because it lacked specific information to support certification as a class. The court held that the plaintiffs can reapply for class certification if they can present the specific information lacking in their original pleadings.
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