Humboldt County has been forced to backtrack and pay property owners a $350,000 settlement and nullify millions in penalties after spending years fining some residents, including charging $10,000 a day, over allegations of illegal cannabis activity.
The property owners had long maintained that the county’s allegations were completely baseless, and they took to the courts to sue over the fines.
The lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2023 by a federal judge, but property owners appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower judge’s decision in 2024, ruling that Humboldt County may have violated the excessive fines clause of the Eighth Amendment, the Lost Coast Outpost reported.
The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that represented the property owners in the lawsuit, said in a news release on Monday that Humboldt County withdrew all cannabis-related violations for five property owners who were accused of growing cannabis on their properties without permits.
Jared McClain, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, said that for the law firm’s clients, $9.45 million in fines will now go away. He said in a news release that the settlement is a warning to all counties trying to levy excessive fines on homeowners.
“Humboldt County spent years fining people more than their homes’ value for things they never did, and then delayed their day in court for years until the pressure to sign a settlement agreement became too much to resist,” McClain said. “Today that unconstitutional money-making machine is dismantled.”
Humboldt County made permitting available for individuals to grow commercial cannabis in 2018, but it also added $10,000 daily fines on land-use violations for illegally growing cannabis, according to the Institute for Justice. The Institute for Justice said that the county relied on satellite images to locate unpermitted land and accused more than 1,200 property owners of violating cannabis laws.
Corrine and Doug Thomas, who are among the five individuals in the settlement, were fined more than $1 million, plus an additional $200,000 to demolish a barn behind their home because the previous property owner had grown cannabis inside, the law firm said. Similarly, Rhonda Olson, who is also among the five plaintiffs in the settlement, was fined $7.4 million after purchasing land that was previously used to grow illegal cannabis.
Most Read
| Ex-child actor claims she was repeatedly raped during Disney filming
Sports | 49ers owner Jed York filed for divorce months before arrest
News | Husband of Central Coast teacher who died sues pool contractor
Parks |
French tourist dies in Death Valley after car breaks down
Read our stories ad-free on the new SFGATE app.
Cati Gallardo, a spokesperson at Humboldt County, told SFGATE that the settlement only applies to the five plaintiffs represented by the Institute for Justice and not other residents. She added that it does not include any admission of fault or liability by the county. Gallardo did not respond to requests about the $10,000 daily penalties and could not determine the overall penalties the five plaintiffs were fined, but said that the $350,000 settlement would cover attorney fees and other legal claims from the lawsuit.
“The County of Humboldt remains committed to fair, effective code enforcement and to implementing the further Code amendments reflected in this settlement,” Gallardo said.
According to the settlement agreement, Humboldt County will also update its policies and codes for future cannabis related issues to include warnings before fines are given, explanations on how a property is allegedly in violation of county rules, and offering hearings no more than 60 days after a notice of penalty is served.
This article originally published at Humboldt County withdraws fines after penalizing homeowners $10K per day.
