Twelve25 Teases New Lawsuit Against Tuscaloosa For Occupancy Ordinance

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A bar on The Strip says it will refile its lawsuit against the City of Tuscaloosa just hours after voluntarily dismissing its previous lawsuit in federal court claiming the city unduly targeted the business for its occupancy rates.

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As Patch previously reported, CMB Holdings Group LLC — the owners of the bar — dropped the lawsuit after claiming the Tuscaloosa City Council adopted a new ordinance earlier this month that owners believe intentionally took aim at the bar's dual-occupancy limits — one limit for during the day when it operates as a restaurant and another for when it exclusively operates as a bar at night.

In a statement sent to Patch Monday night from attorney Bryan Winter, who is representing the bar and restaurant, said the issue at hand should be heard by the people of Tuscaloosa and the courts. This alludes to the city moving the lawsuit from district court to federal court in Birmingham quickly after it was filed.

City officials have declined requests for comment from Patch, citing the ongoing nature of the litigation.

"The city chose to take this matter outside of Tuscaloosa to be heard in a federal court based in Birmingham," Winter said. "Today, we dismissed the case in federal court and will again file the case locally in Tuscaloosa without the federal claims that were in our original lawsuit. We look forward to providing evidence to the court in Tuscaloosa that shows that the City of Tuscaloosa violated the laws of the State of Alabama and the rights of Twelve25 through their discriminatory and arbitrary actions."

Being a minority-owned business, CMB Holdings Group has argued that the measures were implemented because Twelve25 was attracting business away from White-owned establishments.

Among the businesses cited in the lawsuit, attorneys for the holding company said Moe's Original BBQ was another business impacted by the draconian ordinance.

It's equally important to point out that the ordinance change and subsequent lawsuit followed the fatal shooting on Grace Street in January that resulted in the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris.

This prompted the capital murder arrests of Maryland native Michael Davis and former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles and, as Patch previously reported, the two groups involved in the shooting had been patrons of Twelve25 in the hours prior to the shooting. It also spurred calls for action from city residents about enforcing the codes on the books.

Looking back, the city in January 2020 approved two maximum occupancy certificates for Twelve25, 287 and 519 — the larger one being if the restaurant had no tables or chairs, while the smaller number applied to restaurant hours.

As Patch previously reported, Twelve25 was issued a new occupancy certificate earlier this month once the new ordinance went into effect, setting its maximum occupancy at 287 — a number that the bar's owners continue to argue would cause irreparable financial damage to the establishment.

After arguing that the city rushed to enforce the ordinance, while failing to properly advertise the proposed changes, CMB Holdings Group requested a temporary restraining order from United States District Court Judge Annemarie Carney Axon, along with a long list of compensatory damages approved by the court.

Instead, Axon last Thursday denied the request for the temporary restraining order, effectively ruling that the City of Tuscaloosa could continue to enforce the new ordinance — the issue central to the business's gripe.

Unless a judge intervenes, the law says the city can continue to enforce the new occupancy requirement for Twelve25.

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