Source: https://sb-american.com/2018/05/02/the-bane-act-and-beyond/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 22:26:49+00:00

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The Bane Act and beyond – San Bernardino American News celebtates 50 Years!
California’s civil rights statutes represent an untapped resource for plaintiffs whose rights have been interfered with as a result of the intentional tortious conduct of public and private actors in a variety of contexts and circumstances. In addition to broad statutory language that can encompass a multitude of tortious conduct, including conduct of employers and others who have “aided” another in the deprivation of one’s statutory and common-law rights, these statutes contain significant remedies such as punitive damages and attorney’s fees. Exploring just three of California’s civil rights statutes provides a glimpse of what is possible and will hopefully spark an interest in pursuing these virtuous claims.
While Bane Act violations most often accompany section 1983 and Monell claims in federal court, the reach of the Bane Act extends far beyond police misconduct cases. Indeed, while one might assume that a constitutional right must be at issue, the statute does not require interference with only those rights secured by the constitution. Rather, as described in Section 52.1, a plaintiff’s legal rights include “rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of the rights secured by the Constitution or laws of this state.” (Civ. Code, § 52.1, subd. (a) (emphasis added).) Although in Venegas I, the California Supreme Court repeatedly referred to “laws of this state” as “statutory rights” (see Venegas I, supra, 32 Cal.4th at pp. 841-43), in construing the exact same term in the context of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”), the Supreme Court found that the phrase “laws of this state” includes both statutes and common law (Rojo v. Kliger (1990) 52 Cal.3d 65, 75-76). Thus, the reach appears to extend beyond the interference of constitutional and statutory rights and includes rights secured by common law.
The Act provides for liability for interference or attempted interference with an individual’s rights “by threats, intimidation, or coercion.” While the terms “threat,” “intimidation” or “coercion” are not defined in Section 52.1, courts have applied their ordinary and common meaning. (See, e.g., Zamora v. Sacramento Rendering Co. (E.D. Cal. 2007) No. Civ. S-05-00789 DFL KJM, 2007 WL 137239, *8, n. 6 [defining intimidation according to its ordinary meaning as “to make timid or fearful”]; McCue v. S. Fork Union Elem. Sch. (E.D. Cal. 2011) 766 F. Supp. 2d 1003, 1011 [explaining “[f]or the purposes of the Bane Act, the term ‘threat’ means ‘an “expression of an intent to inflict evil, injury, or damage to another.”]; see also Kahn and Links, Cal. Civ. Practice: Civil Rights Litigation (2016) § 3:19.) But with the lack of attention litigants have devoted to the Bane Act, there is little to no authority discussing the meaning of these terms.
By its terms, Section 52.1 does not require a showing of violence or threat of violence. (Cole, at p. 1103; but see Judicial Council of California Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions (“CACI”) 3066 [incorporating an element of violence within the prescription for threats, coercion or intimidation for a Bane Act violation].) The only express exception, and it is, arguably, the exception that proves the rule, is that liability may not be based on “speech alone” unless “the speech itself threatens violence against a specific person or group of persons; and the person or group of persons against whom the threat is directed reasonably fears that, because of the speech, violence will be committed against them or their property and that the person threatening violence had the apparent ability to carry out the threat.” (Civ. Code, § 52.1, subd. (j).) Thus, the only place where section 52.1 specifically requires the threat of violence is where the threats, intimidation or coercion are being accomplished by speech alone.
One issue that is gaining some traction among those defending Bane Act violation claims is the notion that the showing of “threats, intimidation or coercion” must be separate and independent from the wrongful conduct constituting the rights violation. Defendants often argue that in order to maintain a claim under the Bane Act, the threatening, intimidating or coercive conduct at issue must be separate from the interference with constitutional or statutory rights. But such an interpretation conflicts with plain language of the statute and is premised upon a flawed understanding of Shoyoye v. County of Los Angeles (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 947.
Neither Shoyoye, nor the statutory language of Section 52.1, requires that the conduct amounting to a threat, intimidation or coercion cannot also be the conduct alleged to be a violation of civil rights.
In light of these significant remedies, and the broad scope of liability, it is surprising that more Bane Act violations are not pursued. In his concurrence opinion in Venegas v. County of Los Angeles, Justice Baxter highlighted the breadth of Bane Act liability as the statute is currently worded. (Venegas, 32 Cal.4th at pp. 844-45.) According to Justice Baxter, the Legislature “might have inadvertently transformed section 52.1 from its originally intended purpose as a weapon…to combat the rising incidence of hate crimes, to a generally applicable catchall provision that will encourage claimants to seek section 52.1’s sweeping remedies…in commonplace tort actions to which those special statutory remedies were never intended to apply.” (Ibid.) He further noted that “it should not prove difficult to frame many, if not most, asserted violations [of federal and state rights] …as incorporating a threatening, coercive, or intimidating verbal or written component.” (Id. at pp. 850-51.) Notably, in the more than 10 years that have passed since Venegas, the Legislature has taken no action to narrow the scope of the Bane Act’s language.

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