Two wedding venues have said I do to a potential class action lawsuit filed in the northern district of New York against the state over the coronavirus rule barring ceremonies with 50 or more people.
“At present you can gather in crowds to protest in New York — but you can’t get married if you want to invite more than 50 guests,” attorney Chad Davenport, who filed the suit Friday, told the Post on Saturday. “It makes no sense but it’s also a constitutional law question.”
The suit was filed on behalf of Bill and Ted’s Riviera restaurant in Massapequa on Long Island and a Saugerties-based banquet business upstate. Davenport said the suit may grow to include more people.
Davenport previously represented Pamella Giglia and Joe Durolek, who filed suit last month, alongside since-married couple Jenna DiMartile and Justin Crawford, claiming that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order limiting social gatherings to 50 people or less has been unfairly applied while protests, graduations and restaurants have all seen much larger groups gather.
The couple claimed it also violated their constitutional right to conduct a religious wedding according to their beliefs.
Giglia and Durolek had a wedding scheduled for this month at the Sterling at Arrowhead Golf Club in Akron, near Buffalo, but they postponed tying the knot following the appeals court ruling limiting them to only 50 guests.
A lower court judge first allowed DiMartile and Crawford’s wedding — with around 115 guests — to proceed on Aug. 7 — a ruling also in Giglia and Durolek’s favor.
But then the state appealed that decision and asked for a stay of the ruling — which if they won would essentially halt the Giglia-Durolek wedding — pending appeal. The lower court judge denied the stay on Aug. 19.