The state Commonwealth Court today prohibited Allegheny County from enforcing the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

In a 20-page opinion issued this morning, three judges of the Commonwealth Court ruled that Allegheny County ". . . was without authority to enact an ordinance."

Two Downtown bar owners, James G. Mitchell of Mitchell's Restaurant and Bar on Ross Street and John Petrolias of the Smithfield Cafe, had requested the injunction from Commonwealth Court after Common Pleas Judge Michael A. Della Vecchia last month refused to delay the county's implementation of the smoking ban.

Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, writing for the three-judge panel that heard the case, wrote in the opinion that Judge Della Vecchia's order is reversed. The appeals court remanded the case to Judge Della Vecchia to enter a permanent injunction against the county's enforcement of the ban.