WA restaurant must pay nearly $1M for COVID-19 violations, court rules

A Washington restaurant’s fine of nearly $1 million — for repeatedly violating the state’s indoor dining ban throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — was upheld by an appeals court Tuesday, according to The Washington State Standard.

Stuffy’s II Restaurant in Longview owes a $936,000 fine, $18,000 for each of the 52 days that it was open for indoor dining during an emergency proclamation ban that was in effect.

Washington restaurants COVID-19 fine upheld

A three-judge panel ruled that Stuffy’s willfully violated the emergency proclamation and caused significant harm by exposing employees to the COVID-19 virus.

Stuffy’s is owned by Glenda and Bud Duling, under Duling Enterprises LLC. The court also found that Duling Enterprises failed to prove that the fine was excessive in its ruling.

Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) gave Stuffy’s an initial fine of $126,000 in January 2021 for violating former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency order that banned indoor dining.

The penalty Stuffy’s was assessed would then grow each day the restaurant remained open after it received the initial fine.

Inslee enacted the proclamation in November 2020 as a response to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The L&I also issued a separate rule that required all employers to comply with the conditions in Inslee’s proclamation.

The L&I fined roughly 25 businesses in Washington, including Stuffy’s, for violating statewide COVID orders as of January 2021. Stuffy’s had also received a temporary restraining order from the state’s attorney general’s office that required them to stop offering indoor dining.

The fine for Stuffy’s was calculated by the L&I and based on the severity of the offenses and the restaurant’s decision to willfully violate the policies, according to the appeals court decision.

“L&I assessed the severity of the hazard presented by offering dine-in services to be a 3 on a scale from 1 to 3 and the probability of harm to be a one on a scale of 1 to 3,” the court documents stated. “This resulted in a base penalty of $3,000 for each violation. Because Duling had fewer than 251 employees at the time of the inspections, the base penalty was reduced to $1,800 per violation. The base penalty was then multiplied by 10 because the violations were willful, resulting in a $18,000 penalty for each violation.”

The Dulings previously appealed the penalty to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (BIIA). In this appeal, Stuffy’s argued the fine was excessive because there was “minimal harm done” by the violations.

The BIIA upheld the fine, and the Dulings eventually appealed to the Cowlitz County Superior Court.

In February 2024, a Cowlitz County Superior Court judge also ruled that the fines were justified, and the Dulings turned to the state Court of Appeals for a decision.

The Court of Appeals confirmed the BIIA and Cowlitz County Superior Court decisions in its ruling Tuesday, affirming that the fines are justified.

MyNorthwest has reached out to Stuffy’s for comment.

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