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| Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com |
The civil rights of two gym owners who defied COVID-19 lockdown orders were not violated when a New Jersey borough pulled their business license and refused to give it back, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.
Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti, co-owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, filed an appeal in state court in September 2023 in an attempt to reinstate their mercantile license, which was revoked by the borough’s mayor and council during the coronavirus pandemic.
The license was taken away after the business owners failed to comply with Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders imposing COVID-19 restrictions on the operation of their gym, along with judicial orders enforcing the executive order. The standoff made national headlines and Smith later ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Congress.
Murphy issued an executive order on March 9, 2020, declaring a public health emergency under the state’s Emergency Health Powers Act, and a state of emergency under the New Jersey’s Disaster Control Act. The order and state of emergency required businesses to close and for people to stay home.
Atilis Gym opened for workouts anyway. Smith and Trumbetti faced more than 80 summonses charging them with violating a governor’s orders, operating without a mercantile license, creating a public nuisance and disturbing the peace. --->READ MORE HERE
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A verdict is in on the wrongful death lawsuit involving a Gallatin nursing home. After nearly six hours of deliberations, the jury unanimously decided that while the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing was negligent during the early days of the pandemic, they were not responsible for the death of 89 year old Ruth Summers.
This means the nursing home will not have to pay Ruth's family.
The legal team representing the nursing home shared their reaction with NewsChannel 5, shortly after the verdict was read in court. "We’re happy, we feel like we appreciate the jury’s hard work and feel like the nursing home has been vindicated," said Howard Hayden.
Debbie Bolton, the daughter of Ruth who sued the Gallatin nursing home claiming negligence led to her mother's death from COVID, was not in attendance when the verdict was read because of her own health problems. Active staffers for the nursing home were present in the gallery.
Attorney Clint Kelly, who represented Ruth's family, shared their disappointment but added, this won't deter them from the other lawsuits involving this nursing home. "I wish we had won, but we proved that they did something wrong. They spent almost the entire trial saying they didn’t, but the jury found unanimously they were negligent and did wrong," said Kelly. "We’ve got 24 more cases and we’ll learn from this experience and try the next one."
Prior to the ruling — after three weeks of, at times, emotional and combative testimony — attorneys delivered their closing arguments.
"This dereliction of duty happened at the worst time possible and on an epic scale," said Clint Kelly, an attorney for the family of Ruth Summers.
"This is not Gallatin Center’s fault. It is not Gallatin Center’s fault," said Howard Hayden, an attorney for the nursing home.
But there was one topic during closing arguments that Hayden and Kelly were able to agree on: Who's version of events is more believable? That will be the tricky question jurors will have to answer.
Kay Holmes was Kelly's key witness. She, and fellow nurse Kris Brooks, both testified during the trial that they were asked to still come into work when they felt sick. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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