The owners of a New Haven restaurant have filed a COVID-19-related federal lawsuit in Connecticut, alleging the city's mayor maligned the business, often used as a gathering place for events for the mayor's political adversaries, on television over the coronavirus.

Michael Amato and Joy Monsanto, owners of 50′s Lounge LLC, filed suit Friday. They allege New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker went on WTNH-TV, the state's ABC affiliate, on March 20 claiming 50′s Lounge had been operating in violation of Gov. Ned Lamont's rules on how many people can occupy restaurants during the pandemic.

The lounge owners said there was a March 14 birthday party at the restaurant. They said they volunteered to close their doors the next day. Then on March 16, the governor banned gatherings of 50 people or more. The controls continued, when on March 26, Lamont announced no gatherings of more than five would be permitted except for religious and social gatherings.

The lawsuit also looks at the constitutionality of Lamont's limits on gatherings, as well as the mayor's 10-person limit on gatherings. It seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and money damages. It alleges defamation, invasion of privacy by false light, violation of constitutional rights, intentional infliction of emotional distress and reckless infliction of emotional distress.

In addition to the mayor, Lamont is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is a "mayor's representative," who is not identified.

Representing the lounge owners is Kevin Smith of the New Haven firm Pattis & Smith. He declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, which said, in part, "Rather than rising to the opportunity to lead during a legitimate heath crisis, Mayor Elicker instead weaponized growing fears about the pandemic to brutally attack the plaintiffs' and their business in a vulnerable time, hoping to curry favor with certain sectors of the electorate who had opposed the plaintiff's establishment, while simultaneously seeking retribution for the plaintiffs' support of his political rivals."

The lawsuit continues: "The defendants knew that the plaintiffs had closed proactively on March 15, and yet they accused the plaintiffs of criminal conduct in an outrageous effort to not only  directly interfere with the plaintiffs' business, but to cripple it entirely."

Gage Frank, the mayor's director of communications, and David Bednarz, Lamont's spokesman, had no comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

Attorneys from the Office of Connecticut Attorney General William Tong will represent the defendants in court.

In a statement emailed to the Connecticut Law Tribune, Tong said, "Our state constitution and state laws grant the Governor broad authority to protect Connecticut residents and families in a public health emergency, and his executive orders have been very clearly constitutional and fully legally justified."

The lawsuit states the orders from Lamont and Elicker putting a cap on crowd size is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit states, "Defendant Ned Lamont's order limiting the number of people who may attend a gathering are unconstitutional restrictions on the plaintiffs' liberty and right to assemble under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, because it is neither necessary nor carefully tailored to address the purported public health need."

The case is scheduled to be heard in front of Judge Victor Bolden.

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