Washington state restaurant forced to pay $1 MILLION fine for staying open during COVID: Appeals Court

The Washington Court of Appeals ruled this week that Stuffy’s II Restaurant in Longview, owned by Glenda and Bud Duling under Duling Enterprises LLC, owes $936,000 in penalties, $18,000 for each of the 52 days it stayed open in violation of former Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency order. Inslee held on to emergency powers for 975 days.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel determined that the restaurant’s willful defiance of the order posed serious risks by exposing employees to “a potentially deadly disease.” The court also rejected the Dulings’ argument that the fine was excessive because they could not afford to pay it.

“Such a harsh consequence may be warranted in light of the egregiousness of the violation,” the judges wrote, noting that a corporation’s inability to pay does not automatically make a fine unconstitutional.

According to The Washington State Standard, Inslee imposed the ban in November 2020 as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations spiked in the Evergreen State, and the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) issued rules requiring all businesses to comply.

Stuffy’s II was first fined $126,000 in January 2021 after state investigators found the restaurant open for indoor service. But when the restaurant continued to operate in defiance of the order, penalties accumulated daily until they reached nearly $1 million.

The Dulings were among a handful of restaurant owners in Washington who publicly defied the ban. The state attorney general’s office, under now-Governor Bob Ferguson, obtained a temporary restraining order to stop indoor dining at Stuffy’s.

The owners appealed the fines through multiple legal channels. The Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals upheld the penalty, which was subsequently affirmed by the Cowlitz County Superior Court in February 2024. The Court of Appeals’ decision this week leaves the nearly $1 million fine in place.

The court noted that while the restaurant submitted tax returns showing it lost money in 2020 and struggled financially, financial hardship alone does not erase liability for willful violations.

Stuffy’s II has been closed since August 4, when a fire broke out in its kitchen. Four days later, the restaurant posted a message on social media saying, “The road ahead won’t be easy or quick; it’s going to take time, patience, and a lot of work. But we’re committed to rebuilding, picking up the pieces, and coming back stronger than ever.”