Michigan wineries awarded US$50 million in legal dispute
A group of wineries on the Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan have won a pay-out of nearly US$50 million after a five-year legal battle that restricted their ability to develop their tourism offer.
The eleven-strong coalition of wineries brought the case in against the local government in 2020, claiming that the Peninsula Township was unlawfully restricted their ability to do business. They said they were prohibited from hosting a range of events, including weddings, and were not able to serve full meals in their tasting rooms or sell branded merchandise.
The case went to a bench trial in April and May last year, followed by a day of closing arguments in October. This week Judge Paul Maloney of the US. District Court for the Western District of Michigan awarded the wineries US$49.54 million in damages “stemming from the wineries’ inability to properly host small and large events”.
The judgement was welcomed by the lawyer representing the wineries who called it “a decisive victory” in a case that was “never about preserving farmland or rural character” or preventing the wineries from becoming commercial business not tied to the agricultural land on which they’re based, as the opposition had claimed.
However the judge declined from blocking the local government from enforcing the exsiting regulations.
Lawyer Joe Infante of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC, who represented the wineries argued that the judgement could have wider implications as “a lot of other municipalities have these same sorts of ordinances.”
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He told local news outlet Crain’s Grand Rapids Business that “folks have been sitting in watching this to see what happens” and that municipalities who have similar ordinances “should probably take a look at those and revise their ordinances – and wineries that are subject to these kinds of ordinances should probably try to do something about it.”
The wineries involved in the case comprised: Two Lads LLC, Bowers Harbor Vineyard & Winery Inc., Brys Winery LLC, Chateau Grand Traverse Ltd., Chateau Chantal, Peninsula Cellars, Hawthorne Vineyards, Bonobo Winery, Tabone Vineyards LLC, Black Star Farms LLC and Mari Vineyard, along with the non-profit association Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula Association.
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