The court fight between the Lily Dale Assembly and a business owner on the assembly grounds continues Monday in state Supreme Court in Mayville.

Robert Reuther, owner of the Owl’s Nest bed and breakfast, has filed his response to the assembly’s latest attempt to close his business and expel Reuther and his wife, Danielle, from the assembly grounds. Reuther, who is now representing himself in court, said in a recent filing his business should be considered exempt from license fees the assembly says it is owed because the Reuthers’ provide the Lily Dale Assembly a service that meets an immediate need.

“Persons who provide service directly to the Assembly or who are employed by approved residents of the assembly are exempt from license fees. A direct service can be defined as a service that meets an immediate need. My wife and I provide direct services to the Assembly that meet LDA’s immediate needs. For this reason, our business is exempt from license fees,” Reuther said in his affirmation filed July 3.

Reuther repeated his arguments that the claims in Lily Dale’s complaint aren’t authorized under state law, the state constitution, the Lily Dale Assembly bylaws, rules or regulations and, further, that the actions taken by Lily Dale constitute harassment, discrimination and abuse of process against the business owners. Reuther also says he did not enter into agreements on the terms Lily Dale alleges and that the assembly can’t prove the Reuthers violated the material terms of any binding or valid contract.

“Even though the law does not authorize (Lily Dale Assembly) to issue business licenses or collect licensing fees, LDA board members told me, directly and by a lawyer, that the LDA Board could do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and for any reason it wants. That is not true, and LDA has not shown any law that supports their statements,” Reuther wrote. “We have repeatedly been accused of violating LDA bylaws and rules and regulations. We have repeatedly asked LDA to identify the specific Bylaw or Rule or Regulation they claim we violated. LDA has not given an answer, only more harassment and malicious and intentionally harmful actions against us that served no legitimate purposes. Upon information and belief, we believe that the latest LDA Board, through its Treasurer, submitted falsified documentation to the Court concerning business invoices purportedly showing that we paid a guest house license fee in 2018. We never paid a guest house license fee in 2018. We paid a registration fee as shown the previous Exhibit A.”

Lily Dale’s latest filing says the assembly will suffer irreparable harm if the Reuthers’ business is allowed to continue operating. Assembly officials said in their filing the Reuthers are operating the house and advertising it in violation of the assembly’s bylaws, rules and regulations. While offering no proof in their court filings, the assembly says other individuals now refuse to operate their guest houses in compliance with Lily Dale’s bylaws and rules and regulations.

Reuther said the current situation doesn’t actually hurt Lily Dale, but granting Lily Dale’s latest motion for summary judgment will hurt the Reuthers. He asks that the court prohibit Lily Dale from harassing the Reuthers, dismiss the multiple legal actions against the Reuthers and refrain from further legal actions that would breach the Reuthers’ leaseholder agreement and contractual right to operate the Owls Nest guest house, prohibit Lily Dale from taking any action intended to harm the Reuthers and any other relief the court deems proper.

“By granting the LDA a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, we believe that his court would be assenting to the LDA’s continuing flaunting of the assembly’s bylaws and rules and regulations,” Reuther wrote. “The LDA’s refusal to abide by our bylaws and rules and regulations, its refusal to specify exactly what actions the Reuthers have taken to be in violation of their Contract, its egregious mistreatment of the Reuther family, and its proclamation that the LDA board can do ‘whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and for any reason it wants’ is wrong, is not legal, and it is so improper that we respectfully ask the court to dismiss the LDA case.”

Update On Appeal

Last year, Hanlon denied Lily Dale’s claim for summary judgment against the Reuthers, denying the claim and disagreeing with Lily Dale that there was clear language showing the Reuthers agreed to follow the community’s bylaws, rules and regulations in exchange for living on the Lily Dale Grounds.Ambiguity within the documents the Reuthers received, Hanlon wrote, led her not to rule in favor of the assembly when it wanted a quick judgment in its favor last year. When there is ambiguity, she wrote, courts have held summary judgment requests should not be granted.

That decision has been appealed, and no further state Supreme Court action on the case was possible until the appeal was heard – until Lily Dale filed, essentially, a new case asking again for the Reuthers’ business to be closed.

The appeal, according to documents posted recently in the Fourth Department Appellate Division, has been scheduled for a hearing on October 13, while the Reuthers have been granted an extension until Aug. 14 to file their brief in the case.