Attorneys for Twelve25 Dismiss First Lawsuit Against Tuscaloosa to Keep Legal Battle Local
Attorneys for a Tuscaloosa sports bar voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against the city and its leaders Monday, but their legal battle is far from over and a new suit will be filed almost immediately.
As the Thread first reported, Twelve25's owner Jay Jarrett and his business partner sued the city last week along with Mayor Walt Maddox and the entire seven-member council over an amendment to city code that drastically limited the gastropub's late-night occupancy.
Their 50-page lawsuit accused city leaders of racism and of acting "knowingly, wrongfully, willingly, fraudulently, maliciously, beyond their authority, under a mistaken interpretation of the law, and in bad faith."
Importantly, the lawsuit accused city leaders of violating federal law, which allowed attorneys for the city to have it immediately removed from its court of origin in Tuscaloosa County to a federal court.
There, U.S. District Court Judge Annemarie Carney Axon shot down a request for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed Twelve25 to operate with the same occupancy they've had since opening in 2020.
On Monday, attorneys for Twelve25 filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the case they filed last week, but have provided the Thread with a statement saying they intend to file a new lawsuit as soon as possible without the components of federal law included in the first one.
That will keep the new case in Tuscaloosa County, where the attorneys think they are most likely to succeed in a case against city leadership.
"What the City of Tuscaloosa has done to Twelve25 is an issue that we believe should be heard and decided by the people and courts of Tuscaloosa," Twelve25 said in a statement. "The City chose to take this matter outside of Tuscaloosa to be heard in a federal court based in Birmingham. 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."
The new lawsuit could be filed as soon as Tuesday afternoon -- stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread for updates in this case as they become available.