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The owners of the Calumet Inn have appealed a decision by a United States District Court judge in favor of the city of Pipestone and the city’s former building and zoning official, Doug Fortune.
reVamped LLC, Heliocentrix LLC, Tammy Grubbs and Vanda Smrkovski filed a complaint against the city and Fortune in 2022 alleging that the city and Fortune violated their due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and violated their 5th Amendment rights by preventing them from using or occupying the Calumet Inn when the city condemned the property and ordered it to be closed from March 10, 2020 to April 30, 2020. In December, United States District Court Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan granted a motion for summary judgment by the city of Pipestone and Fortune, and dismissed all counts in the complaint.
According to a federal court document filed April 2, Grubbs and Smrkovski are appealing that decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The owners argue in a 66-page document, filed by their attorney Gregory Erickson, that the district court erred in its conclusions and analysis, and that the city and Fortune did violate their rights.
“This appeal is not simply about one wrongful condemnation — it is about a pattern and practice of abuse, the deliberate misuse of power, and a calculated decision by a government official to sidestep the law when it proved inconvenient,” the document concludes. “There are genuine issues of material fact as it relates to Doug Fortune’s application of procedures to condemn or close the Calumet Inn. Because there was no emergency, there was no justification to deprive Grubbs of her procedural process rights.”
Grubbs said by email that the owners do hope to eventually reopen the Calumet Inn.