the bar-restaurant manager more heavily sanctioned

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The summary judge of administrative court of Paris validated the fermeture administrative of three months which had been inflicted on a bar-restaurant from the 19th arrondissement of the capital who persisted in letting his customers smoke “outside the smoking room”.

The establishment, located rue Cavendish, had already been notified of a first “two-month” closure on May 29, 2024 by the Paris Police Prefect. But, then, the police services carried out checks on May 31 and June 1, 2024, and found that the establishment was not closed “despite the measure pronounced” a few days earlier.

Customers smoking “outside the smoking room”

Customers had also been seen smoking “chisha” “outside the smoking room”. On August 12, 2024, Laurent Nuñez therefore declared a new administrative closure, this time for a period of “three months”. The bar-restaurant then urgently referred the matter to the Paris administrative court.

The effects of this measure had to be suspended since “the financial balance of the establishment is threatened in the short term”. The closure indeed results in a “loss of turnover”, but he still has to face “fixed charges”, as his accountant had also attested.

“The condition of urgency to which the issuance of a suspension measure is subject must be considered as fulfilled when the contested decision causes sufficiently serious and immediate harm to a public interest, to the situation of the applicant or to the interests which he intends to defend”, begins by recalling the judge in summary proceedings in an order of September 17, 2024, which has just been made public.

“No emergency demonstrated”

But, in this case, the “mere assertions” of the company and “the absence of accounting documents supporting the financial difficulties invoked” do not make it possible to demonstrate “the existence of sufficiently serious and immediate damage” which would require ” the intervention at short notice” of a summary judge “without waiting for a ruling on the legality of the decision on the merits”, considers the Parisian magistrate.

The “only” certificate drawn up by the company's accountant is also content to state, in a “general manner”, the “great financial difficulty [de la société] since the administrative closure” and the “risk of cessation of payment” that it incurs.

However, this “cannot take the place of the required justification”, dismisses the summary judge of the Paris administrative court, in the absence of “any accounting document or any precise figure” on the “state of the cash flow” or ” the amount of expenses to be disbursed in the short term”.

“Failure to justify circumstances characterizing an emergency situation […]there is reason to reject the request in all its conclusions,” concluded the magistrate.

The business manager can always hope to win the case on the merits, following the re-examination of the case by three professional judges brought together in collegial formation, within eighteen months to two years. If the Paris administrative court were to follow him this time, the applicant could claim compensation for his various damages.

/CB (PressPepper)

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