Class Action Claims Pennsylvania’s Closure of Businesses in Response to COVID-19 Is Unconstitutional

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf and the state’s Department of Health secretary have been named as defendants in a proposed class action that claims the governor’s orders to close all “non-life sustaining” businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic violate the U.S. Constitution.

Filed by a Pennsylvania handbell manufacturer and two workers who were laid off in response to the company’s mandated closure, the lawsuit alleges the executive orders issued March 19 and 20 amount to an unlawful seizure of property without due compensation—a practice prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.

The lawsuit claims businesses were provided with no notice before being forced to close their doors—and consequently lay off workers they cannot afford to pay during the closure—for an indefinite period of time. According to the case, the orders effectively rendered the businesses’ property and assets worthless as they cannot be accessed or utilized while the closure remains in effect.

Likewise, employees have been deprived of their livelihood with little hope of finding work as the governor’s orders to stay home have made a job search “a near impossibility,” the suit argues.

While the plaintiffs concede that Governor Wolf took action for a “readily-apparent” public purpose, highlighting the serious nature of the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency, the case stresses that businesses and workers were not provided with due compensation in exchange for shouldering the burden of the state’s crisis.

“Notably absent from the COVID-19 Closure Orders, or any other executive orders issued by Governor Wolf, is any provision addressing the inherent financial burden inflicted by the Orders on individuals and businesses throughout Pennsylvania – a direct result of the mandated shutdowns,” the complaint states.

The plaintiff business, which the suit notes is one of only two manufacturers of orchestral quality musical handbells and handchimes “in the entire world,” now stands “on the precipice of economic collapse,” the lawsuit alleges. The company claims it has been cut off from business during its “busiest time of year,” when performing groups from all over the world send their instruments to the company for repairs and refurbishments. The business was allegedly forced to lay off nine of its employees as a result of the governor’s executive orders, two of whom are the other two named plaintiffs.

The two worker plaintiffs are described in the complaint as “highly skilled artisans with deeply specialized skills” in the manufacture of musical instruments. As the only other manufacturer of “musically tuned handbells” in the world is also located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and is therefore closed, the workers fear they will be unable to find work to provide for their families, stressing that unemployment only covers “a fraction” of their former paychecks.

“All Employee Class Members, like [the plaintiff employees], recognize the exigent nature of the extant public health emergency; nevertheless, they question why employees and small business are asked to bear the cost for the measures that Governor Wolf and Dr. Levine have determined are necessary to support public health,” the complaint states. “They fear contracting the novel coronavirus, but they equally fear the ominous and looming possibility that – soon – they will be unable to pay their bills or buy food for their families without paychecks.”

The lawsuit claims it is “arbitrary and capricious” to require that small businesses and workers in Pennsylvania “privately bear without compensation” the cost of the Governor’s COVID-19 response. As the lawsuit puts it:

“Never in the modern history of the United States – even in war time – has such a large swath of the Pennsylvania economy been idled for so long by a government order.”

The lawsuit seeks to represent all businesses that:

• Were categorized as “non-life sustaining” at the time the executive orders were issued and were forced to close as a result;
• Applied for an exemption waiver from the Pennsylvania Department of Community Development and either received no response or a denial; and
• Cannot perform normal business operations through alternative means, such as telecommuting.

Additionally, the case proposes a second class of workers who were employed by “non-life sustaining” businesses that were forced to shut down as a result of the executive orders and, as a result, were laid off, furloughed, or received reduced hours or compensation.

The full complaint can be read below.