I have never seen this either, around here you either pass or don't pass. There are 2 kinds of not passing, the first kind is if you have something severely wrong that can not be corrected in an allotted amount of time or poses an immediate direct threat to health and or safety. The second is not a direct threat and can be repaired, so they give you a week or so and come back and reinspect, if its fixed it doesn't go any further...
When I had my deli, I got a warning about a cooler with a faulty drain dehydrator, the cooler had been converted to gravity drain but the condensate pan still had the heater in it, and since it was there it had to be operational, I simply unscrewed the heater and threw it away, I did it right in front of the inspector BUT he still had to come back in a week o check that it was up to code, lol...
The funny part was that heater was there when I opened and needed an inspection to open obviously, and he inspected it initially, I was thinking it but didn't say it, figured it wouldn't do any good...
I have worked in restaurants and other food establishments {HVAC-r Repair} that after the first time I was allowed behind the scenes, I would never eat there again... I was tempted to call the health dept a few times but sadly always talked myself out of it, but did warn my friends and family...