Last week an Ohio Common Pleas Court Judge David E. Cain has put on hold the collection of $30,000 in fines against a pub located in Columbus, which was charged with permitting patrons to smoke inside.
Judge Cain decided that pub owners have no power on whether a customer smokes a cigarette, and thus, can not be liable in case they have fulfilled other obligations stipulated in the provisions of the Ohio Smoke Free Act. The judge said that the owners have installed no-smoking signs, removed ashtrays, and always asked their visitors to smoke outside or leave their place, but they could not do anything more besides these things.
The supporters of the decision stated that it could be of a utmost significance for property owners, since it could result in similar suits and even refunds of money already collected in fines from the business that violated the smoking ban. Maurice Thompson, the lawyer for the Zeno bar, which was freed from paying the $30,000 fine admitted the ruling outlaws the enforcement agencies for the Health Department from collecting fines and ticketing the property owners.
The spokesman for Ohio Licensed Beverage Association said they would act immediately, in case the enforcement agents would continue their illegal persecution of property owners.
The office of Ohio Attorney General declared they would appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court, while the department of health would continue fining the venues, found to allow smoking inside.
In November 2006, the Ohio ban on smoking in all public places was approved by the voters. It was implemented in May 2007, when the officials agreed on the regulations and established system of fines for the offenders of the ban.
Since the implementation of the ban, public health enforcement officials have made almost 3,400 warnings and issued approximately 2,200 fines for public places that permitted visitors to light up. Zeno’s bar was the second-most frequent offender of the ban across the state according to the documents filled to the court by Attorney General’s Tobacco Enforcement Section.
The spokesman for the Attorney General said Zeno’s was visited by enforcement agents nearly 30 times, and in the majority of cases the agents found visitors smoking at the bar country and shaking the ass off into the small cups filled with water. The bar has been cited with 10 infringements and fined many times, with penalties varying from $100 to $5,000.
The bar owner stated he met with all the requirements of the law, installing no smoking signs, and requiring customers to avoid smoking in the bar.
Commenting the ruling Judge Cain said that shifting the burden of ban enforcement only on property owners is ridiculous and interferes with basic notions of justice and lawfulness, since the property owners could not pat down the patrons on the entrance door for cigarette packs, neither they can take out the visitors from their property against their own will and under the risk of personal injury.