The owner of a Northern California winery asked the Supreme Court to halt the collection of nearly $4 million in fines levied against it by Napa County, as she appeals the penalties the county imposed for hosting routine wine tastings. She says the fines, which she notes punish ordinary activity for which her business was properly licensed, exceed the value of the entire winery and her personal net worth.Lindsay Hoopes, proprietor of Hoopes Family Winery Partners, filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court earlier this month asking the high court to pause the collection of a $1,525,000 fine and $2,250,000 in attorneys’ fees that a California trial court awarded the county, while Hoopes appeals the judgment. Hoopes claims she was fined the exorbitant amounts for hosting wine tastings at her vineyard, which the county recently found to be a “public nuisance,” despite her having all proper licenses and approvals to conduct the tastings.
Hoopes urged the Supreme Court justices to pause the judgment while she appeals the adverse ruling from the Napa Superior Court, warning that if they do not, she will have to immediately pay the nearly $4 million judgment, which “far exceeds both the property’s lifetime revenues and her personal net worth and will force liquidation of the property.”
