LISBON — A federal judge recently ruled against the city of Salem in a lawsuit that challenged occupancy license rules, barring the city from enforcing sections which criminalized failure to renew an occupancy license and required an inspection.

The order also prohibits the city from enforcing “the $60 penalty fee for late payment of the occupancy fee against plaintiffs and others who refuse consent to warrantless inspection.”

U.S. District Court Judge Charles E. Fleming granted the preliminary injunction Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division in Youngstown in the case filed earlier this year by Mark Courtney, who owns multiple rental units in Salem.

The case was originally filed in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court and then was removed to federal court at the request of counsel for the city, Gregory Beck of Baker Dublikar of North Canton.

The current order only halts enforcement during the pendency of the case, with a final ruling still to come. Attorney David Barbee of Roth Blair Strasfeld & Lodge, who is representing Courtney confirmed Wednesday that no further hearings had been scheduled in the case at that time.

“There still has to be a final decision from the courts,” said Barbee.

In the order, the judge wrote that administrative searches like the inspections required by the city violate the Fourth Amendment when authorized and conducted without a warrant procedure. He also said the city “may not punish a landlord’s refusal to consent to such a search with criminal penalties.”

The rule violates the Fourth Amendment by requiring a property owner to “consent to a warrantless inspection of their property or face a criminal penalty.”

He said the $60 penalty fee the city planned to assess due to nonpayment of occupancy license fees “is without a basis in the housing code. The 2024 amendment eliminated the $60 additional fee to be charged when assessing an unpaid occupancy license fee to the unit’s property taxes.”

The $60 fee is noted on the 2024 fee schedule for the city but the code doesn’t contain a provision to trigger the fee.

The court found the rules about criminal penalties and preapplication inspections unconstitutional.

The court’s explanation of the dispute referenced a letter sent to Courtney and the apartment complexes from Salem Director of Housing Kayla Crowl which said the occupancy licenses had been revoked due to their failure to consent to the inspections of the housing units. Crowl testified about the letter and said it was contrary to the city’s housing code.

“Ms. Crowl never informed plaintiffs that her letter was sent in error, but testified that she never, in fact, revoked plaintiffs’ licenses,” the ruling said.

Besides naming the city of Salem as a defendant, other defendants named in the complaint included Crowl and city Housing Inspector Richard Snyder.

Plaintiffs were listed as Courtney, 1717 State Street LLC, C&C Rental Investments LLC, Wilson Street LLC care of CPM Agent Corporation and Lexington Rentals LLC care of Dennis Clunk statutory agent, all of Alliance, and Salem Cedar Ridge Apartments Ltd. of Salem.

The complaint focused on the city ordinance related to housing and occupancy which was amended last year and includes a requirement for inspection of rental properties, the payment of a $35 fee for each occupancy license application and a fee of $72 per rental unit for each occupancy license.

Filed by attorneys David Barbee of Columbiana and Lawrence Stacey II of Lisbon, the complaint was seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief “prohibiting Salem from assessing and collecting the unlawful charges at issue and prosecuting those who do not register the rental properties or pay the unlawful charges at issue.”

The court was requested to declare Salem’s pre-occupancy inspection requirement, which the lawsuit claimed was “authorizing warrantless searches without probable cause,” as unconstitutional, which it did.

What the federal ruling did not do was address the $72 fee, with the counsel for Courtney saying a preliminary injunction wasn’t being sought regarding that fee, noting there’s a separate claim contesting the fee’s validity.

Crowl and Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey said that they were not aware the preliminary injunction had been issued when reached for comment Wednesday evening. However, Dickey said that she was not surprised that the preliminary injunction had been issued, noting that the order would “put a pause on everything” until the judge could issue a ruling.

“If it were me bringing the case, I would want an injunction to stop anything else from happening until I got a ruling,” said Dickey.

Dickey said that for now Salem would have to wait for the court to reach its final decision, and that the city would plan its next steps accordingly. Dickey also maintained that the contested inspections “were nothing unusual,” and in line with how Salem has administered the issuance of occupancy licenses “for years now.”