Kids First Swim School will appeal a judge's ruling to dismiss its $2 million lawsuit against the Carroll and Baltimore County health departments and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The swim school failed to establish the elements required for slander, libel, negligence and interference with contractual relations, Carroll County Circuit Judge Thomas F. Stansfield wrote in his ruling.
The Carroll County Health Department distributed a news release last June stating the Finksburg location's pool had been violating health and safety standards and operating without a valid pool permit for at least 15 months. However, the swim school alleged it was an unfair target of testing for a combined chlorine limit in Maryland that is impossible to meet.
Kids First Swim School alleged the plaintiffs — which include Carroll health department employees Edwin Singer and Leigh Broderick, as well as Linda Rudie, of DHMH — "set upon a course of retaliation, harassment and intimidation."
This is a legal battle that's been waged for years. In March 2012, the Carroll County Health Department ordered the Finksburg swim school to cease operations, which it did not do. In August 2012, the health department notified the swim school of its intent to revoke its operating permit due to several violations. The health department declined to renew the swim school's operation permit Jan. 7, 2013, a decision the swim school appealed.
An administrative law judge ruled the health department was allowed to make such a decision May 31, 2013. Last July, the swim school filed the lawsuit, alleging slander, libel, negligence and interference with contractual relations.
Stansfield ruled to dismiss the case, stating there were several grounds for dismissal: The swim school did not adequately state a claim for defamation, municipal governmental entities and the state employees named are entitled to immunity and the plaintiffs failed to state a claim for intentional interference with contractual relations.
A plaintiff must prove the statements are false in order to prove defamation, and the statements were true, Stansfield wrote in his ruling.
Kids First Swim School owner Gary Roth wrote in a statement Wednesday that he believes there was malice behind the Carroll County Health Department's actions. Because of this and their "incompetence," the Finksburg pool lost 60 percent of its customers and has incurred losses totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, Roth stated.
Kids First Swim School alleged the defendants harbored "ill will." But Stansfield ruled these assertions were insufficient to show actual malice, and that health department officials were acting within the scope of their jobs.
Leigh Broderick, Carroll County Health Department's environmental programs assistant director, said it was nice to have the ruling back, but declined to comment further. Edwin Singer, environmental health director, declined to comment.
The Baltimore County Health Department declined to comment, according to Monique Lyle, health department spokeswoman.
DHMH is "gratified by the court's decision," Clifford Mitchell, DHMH's environmental health bureau director, wrote in an email. He declined to comment on the swim school's decision to appeal the ruling.
Last month, a Baltimore County administrative judge dismissed a health department citation that the combined chlorine levels in Kids First Swim School's Perry Hall pool were too high. Judge Lawrence Stahl ruled that a mathematical calculation must be made when testing combined chlorine levels in all Baltimore County pools to adjust the readings.
Roth wrote in his statement that Stahl's ruling showed there was no basis for the health department to attempt to shutter his business.
"But [Stansfield's] ruling suggests that ignorance or incompetence is apparently not grounds for the government to be held accountable," Roth wrote in a statement. "The government gets a clean record, and the private sector gets to lick our wounds. These are the times we live in."
However, Stansfield wrote in his ruling that he dismissed the lawsuit because employees were acting within their job description to benefit public health, the statements officials made were not false and actual malice could not be proven.
