An appeal by the owners of the Coyote Jack's nightclub to attempt to reinstate their beer permit was dismissed Monday.
According to a Hamilton County Chancery Court clerk, the appeal of the Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board's October decision to revoke the controversial club's beer permit after the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old gang member there on a night with occupancy violations was dismissed Monday morning.
The dismissal comes after the owner of the club, Bankable Holdings LLC, filed the appeal in December on the last possible day, arguing that the beer board should have granted it a continuation in October when neither Ronnie Berke nor Tammie Taylor, the owners of the club, were present to represent themselves.
The beer board heard the case and ultimately voted to revoke the corporation's beer permit at its regular October meeting without the owners present, despite an email conversation between Berke's attorney Russell King and former Assistant City Attorney Keith Reisman. In that conversation, King pled for a deferral of the case. According to Reisman, the city agreed to defer if King submitted in writing that the club would stay closed through the future date and would serve papers from the city to Taylor before the first hearing date, but King did not meet those criteria.
In response, the city filed a motion to dismiss the appeal, citing technical issues with Coyote Jack's filing.
According to the city's December motion, none of the supporting documents in the appeal were sworn before a court clerk, judge or a notary, as required by law, which the city calls "fatal" to the court's ability to hear the case.
With its beer permit revoked, alcohol permit suspended and up for revocation by the state, business license revoked, landlords moving to terminate their lease and the city working to determine the establishment a public nuisance and close it permanently, Coyote Jack's remains closed.
Phone calls to Berke and King by the Times Free Press on Tuesday morning were unsuccessful.
More than a dozen in-person and phone attempts to reach Berke and Taylor have been unsuccessful since the shooting in October.
Contact Sarah Grace Taylor at staylor@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416. Follow her on Twitter @sarahgtaylor.