FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 6, 2013
DRAKES BAY OYSTER COMPANY APPEALS JUDGE’S DECISION TO DENY INJUNCTION
The Lunny Family Continues the Fight to Keep the Farm in Business
SAN FRANCISCO – Cause of Action (CoA), a government accountability organization, Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP, and SSL Law today appealed Judge Gonzalez Rogers’s decision to deny an injunction for Drakes Bay Oyster Company, which would have allowed the company to remain open for the duration of the trial, Drakes Bay Oyster Company v. Salazar, et al. Without an injunction, the family farm will be required to cease all operations, destroy millions of un-harvested oysters, and force several families living on the farm to move elsewhere by February 28.
“We are committed to fighting against government abuse and overreach to keep the Lunny family in business,” said Amber Abbasi, Chief Counsel for Regulatory Affairs at Cause of Action, “and are taking all the necessary legal steps to appeal this ruling.”
Kevin Lunny, owner of Drakes Bay Oyster Company offered this brief statement on behalf of the farm:
“We continue to be grateful for the outpouring of support from our community. We have had time to weigh our options carefully, and have decided to appeal the judge’s decision.”
Cause of Action and Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP, and SSL Law represent Drakes Bay Oyster Company.
The judge’s decision can be found here.
Our Appeal and Exhibits can be found here.
About Cause of Action:
Cause of Action is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that uses investigative, legal, and communications tools to educate the public on how government accountability and transparency protects taxpayer interests and economic opportunity. For more information, visit www.causeofaction.org.
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If this court does not have “jurisdiction”, then WHO DOES, WHICH COURT?? Does this mean that a decision can be made by a Political appointee, and the recipient has absolutely NO RECOURSE? Not an attorney, just a concerned citizen.
The Obama administration wants to declare this area a wilderness area via the Dept. of the Interior, even though there has been no proof that the environment has been adversely affected. This is nothing but another example of regulatory tyranny that paints small business owners as “evil profit-mongers.”
What will happen as a result of the decimation of this small business? Oysters will require importation from Washington state and (don’t guess): CHINA! Also, the small businesses that are adjacent to and depend upon the DB oyster producers will be affected negatively. Even though Jerry Brown will deny it, businesses are leaving California in droves, taking many of their employees with them because of onerous taxes and insane regulations that remove any incentives for businesses to remain.
My heart goes out to the Lunnys, but frankly our federal government is now so powerful that they can stamp out any business they wish under the cloak of pseudo-environmentalist regulations by appointed agency heads (such as Salazar) who can’t be voted into or out of office.
If you wish to support local oyster production and the employees who make that production possible, get on the phone, write letters, send emails to your local reps and to Salazar. Or…plan on Chinese oysters that are apt to fall outside FDA regs.
The Obama administration wants to declare this area a wilderness area via the Dept. of the Interior, even though there has been no proof that the environment has been adversely affected. This is nothing but another example of regulatory tyranny that paints small business owners as “evil profit-mongers.”
What will happen as a result of the decimation of this small business? Oysters will require importation from Washington state and (don’t guess): CHINA! Also, the small businesses that are adjacent to and depend upon the DB oyster producers will be affected negatively. Even though Jerry Brown will deny it, businesses are leaving California in droves, taking many of their employees with them because of onerous taxes and insane regulations that remove any incentives for businesses to remain.
My heart goes out to the Lunnys, but frankly our federal government is now so powerful that they can stamp out any business they wish under the cloak of pseudo-environmentalist regulations by appointed agency heads (such as Salazar) who can’t be voted into or out of office.
If you wish to support local oyster production and the employees who make that production possible, get on the phone, write letters, send emails to your local reps and to Salazar. Or…plan on Chinese oysters that are apt to fall outside FDA regs.
I consider myself an environmentalist, but those people getting quoted in the press have never been here, don’t know how vast the Marin Seashors is, how much we love our homegrown oysters. The oyster company is occupying a very small corner of this beautiful wilderness. If those of us who visit it regularly have no problem, why should some beaurocrats care? Are they just afraid of the voting clout of the Sierra Club?
Hurricane Katrina wiped out a lot of oyster farming in Louisiana and now the government wants to wipe out another American oyster farm. However, this government is doing ‘knee jerk’ administration and ‘buckles’ to special interest protest and money.