Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. dba Ken's Gold Club v. Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board

CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 14, 2009
DocketM2008-01994-COA-R3-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. dba Ken's Gold Club v. Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board (Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. dba Ken's Gold Club v. Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. dba Ken's Gold Club v. Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE May 7, 2009 Session

ENTERTAINER 118 AND MERONEY ENTERTAINMENT, INC. D/B/A KEN'S GOLD CLUB v. METROPOLITAN SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESS LICENSING BOARD

Appeal from the Chancery Court for Davidson County No. 07-41-II Carol L. McCoy, Chancellor

No. M2008-01994-COA-R3-CV - Filed August 14, 2009

An inspector cited an entertainer and the sexually oriented business in which she worked for violating an ordinance governing certain requirements for entertainers and businesses engaging in sexually oriented entertainment. The Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board upheld the citations and fined the entertainer and the business $500 each. They appealed and the chancery court affirmed. They now appeal to the Court of Appeals. We find that the board did not have authority to assess the fine. We affirm the board and the chancery court’s finding that the ordinance was violated, and since the board has authority to impose other sanctions, we remand the matter to the chancery court with instructions to return the matter to the board.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Chancery Court Affirmed in part, Reversed in part

ANDY D. BENNETT , J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which PATRICIA J. COTTRELL, P.J., M.S., and RICHARD H. DINKINS, J., joined.

John Edward Herbison, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellants, Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. d/b/a Ken's Gold Club.

Lora Barkenbus Fox and Paul Jefferson Campbell, II, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board.

OPINION

Background

According to testimony at the November 8, 2006 meeting of the Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board (“the Board”), an inspector for the Board visited Ken’s Gold Club for an inspection on October 1, 2006. As he was introducing himself and informing the manager of his purpose, the inspector noticed a waitress run up some stairs. The inspector followed her and heard her warning people that he was present. In one of the upstairs rooms, the inspector found Entertainer 118,1 a female, with a male customer. He observed the entertainer straddling the customer’s legs, “grinding the pubic region and her buttocks against the customer’s pubic region.”2 She was wearing what both legal counsel called an opaque bikini and what the inspector called “a bra and underwear.” The customer was wearing long pants. There was no skin-to-skin contact, but the inspector noted that the customer touched Entertainer 118's bikini-bottom-clad buttocks.

The inspector considered Entertainer 118’s actions to constitute sexually oriented entertainment. In his opinion, her actions depicted sexual intercourse. He testified that her actions did not occur on a stage,3 as required by M.C.L. § 6.54.140(C),4 and that she was less than three feet away from the customer. The inspector brought the manager into the room and filled out an inspection form stating that Entertainer 118 violated M.C.L. § 6.54.140(B)5 & (C). Another inspection form stated Ken’s Gold Club violated M.C.L. § 6.54.130(A),6 as well as M.C.L. § 6.54.140(B) & (C). Citations were subsequently issued.

1 The names and addresses of sexually oriented business license and permit applicants are confidential. Deja Vu of Nashville v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville & Davidson County, 274 F.3d 377, 395 (6th Cir. 2001). Thus, “Entertainer 118” is a pseudonym.

2 In this context, “grinding” means “an action of rotating the hips with a suggestive motion [or erotic manner](as in a dance or in a burlesque striptease).” W ebster’s New International Dictionary 1000 (3d ed. 1971) (also available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grinding).

3 Entertainer 118 testified she and the customer were on a couch.

4 M.C.L. § 6.54.140(C) provides:

No customer shall be permitted to have any physical contact with any entertainer on the licensed premises while the entertainer is engaged in a performance of live sexually oriented entertainment. All performances of live sexually oriented entertainment shall only occur upon a stage at least eighteen inches above the immediate floor level and removed at least three feet from the nearest customer.

5 M.C.L. § 6.54.140(B) provides:

No operator, entertainer or employee on the premises for furthering the business, not including independent contractors on the premises for repairs or construction, shall encourage or permit any person upon the premises to touch, caress or fondle the breasts, buttocks, anus or genitals of any entertainer, operator or employee.

6 M.C.L. § 6.54.130(A) provides:

An operator is responsible for the conduct of all entertainers while on the licensed premises and any act or omission of any entertainer constituting a violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed the act or omission of the operator for purposes of determining whether the operator’s license shall be revoked, suspended, renewed or a penalty assessed subject to the limits described in Section 6.54.150(E).

-2- Entertainer 118 provided a somewhat different version of her activity. She testified that her customer was wearing a sweater, long pants and perhaps a hat. She said she was dancing to music, and her whole body was moving side to side and back and forth. She denied grinding her customer’s pubic region with her pubic region. She denied having sexual intercourse with her customer or simulating sexual intercourse. She testified that she sat on her customer’s lap nearer to his knees than to his crotch.7 From her perspective as a performer, she said that her dance was neither erotic nor arousing: she just considered it “[a] job.”

The Board voted to sustain the citations and assessed Entertainer 118 and Ken’s Gold Club with a fine of $500 each.8 Both appealed to the chancery court pursuant to the common law writ of certiorari. The chancellor upheld the citations and the fines. Entertainer 118 and Ken’s Gold Club appeal to this court, raising three issues: whether state law authorizes the Board to impose fines, whether the fine contravenes Article VI, Section 14 of the Tennessee Constitution,9 and whether the record supports a finding that the entertainer’s conduct constitutes sexually oriented entertainment within the meaning of the ordinance.

Analysis

Review under a common law writ of certiorari is limited to “whether the inferior board or tribunal has exceeded its jurisdiction, followed an unlawful procedure, acted illegally, arbitrarily, or fraudulently, or acted without material evidence to support its decision.” Harding Acad. v. Metropolitan Gov’t of Nashville & Davidson County, 222 S.W.3d 359, 363 (Tenn. 2007). The reviewing court cannot (1) inquire into the intrinsic correctness of the lower tribunal's decision, (2) reweigh the evidence, or (3) substitute its judgment for that of the lower tribunal. Id.

Both appellants challenge the Board’s authority to assess fines. They accurately frame the issue in their brief as “whether any state statute or Metropolitan Charter provisions authorizes [sic] the levying of a fine by an administrative tribunal, as distinct from . . . a court.” This issue is a question of law, which we review de novo without a presumption of correctness. Wilson County Youth Emergency Shelter, Inc., v. Wilson County, 13 S.W.3d 338, 342 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1999).

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Entertainer 118 and Meroney Entertainment, Inc. dba Ken's Gold Club v. Metropolitan Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/entertainer-118-and-meroney-entertainment-inc-dba-kens-gold-club-v-tennctapp-2009.