By Barry Eberling | Napa Valley Register | August 13, 2024 |
Lindsay Hoopes is asking the Napa County Superior Court to dismiss the county’s lawsuit against her family’s winery, alleging the county withheld key documents from the trial that took place earlier this year.
“This motion is made on the grounds that post-trial discovery of county records exposed government misconduct that denied defendant a fair trial,” the filing said.
As of Tuesday, Napa County had not yet filed a reply in court explaining its position. It released a statement to the Napa Valley Register.
“Ms. Hoopes’ motion is unsurprising given her record in this litigation,” the county’s statement said. “As this case is now under submission to the court, it would be inappropriate for the county to comment at this time.”
Judge Mark Boessenecker is slated to hold a Sept. 6 hearing on the motion to dismiss. Meanwhile, Boessenecker, as of Tuesday, had yet to announce his verdict in the 11-day trial itself, which ended Feb. 14 and saw both parties file post-trial briefs in subsequent months.
Understanding why Lindsay Hoopes says Boessenecker should dismiss the case involves knowing some background of Napa County winery rules.
Napa County sued the Hoopes Family Vineyard winery in October 2022 for a variety of alleged code violations. Among other claims, the county said the winery near Yountville illegally hosts tasting guests.
The original owner secured county approval for the winery in 1984 under the county’s now-defunct small winery exemption program. That program offered streamlined approvals to participants who agreed to certain terms.
According to the county, those terms include hosting no tasting room or event visitors.
Hoopes attorneys argued at trial that the visitor prohibition was for “public” visitation by guests who dropped in without an appointment. The ban did not extend to “private” visitation by guests who make appointments, they said.
The county maintained that the only way Hoopes can host visitors of any type is to apply for a use permit, which can be an expensive undertaking.
In the new court filing, Lindsay Hoopes says a 2012 county winery database shows the winery can have tasting room visitors by appointment. The database is a listing of all 500 or so Napa County wineries and their entitlements.
Also, a 2015 county database shows the winery can have tours and tastings by appointment, the filing said.
The Hoopes side says it found the 2012 winery database and a 2015 database after the trial ended and that the county didn’t provide them, despite Hoopes’ repeated requests for such information.
Later versions of the winery database show the Hoopes winery doesn’t have tasting visitor rights. As far as Lindsay Hoopes is concerned, that is revisionist history.
Lindsay Hoopes alleged the county purposefully withheld the 2012 and 2015 databases, depriving the defense of the chance to question county witnesses about these records. If Boessenecker declines to dismiss the trial, she wants a new trial.
“The defense did not know the county had previously recognized this right in a public record and then deleted it,” Hoopes, who is an attorney, wrote in her filing.
Another possibility is the county made a mistake in the 2012 and 2015 databases and corrected it. The database states that it may contain omissions or errors.
All of this adds yet another twist to a court case that puts Napa County’s sometimes confusing, sometimes contentious world of winery regulations in the spotlight.