Opinion ID: 1308189
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: installation of overhead fire sprinkler systems

Text: The majority holds that despite the stated purpose of protecting the public health, safety and welfare, the ordinance was really enacted to restrict lewd and immoral activities. Appellants cite 303 W. 42nd St. Corp. v. Klein, 58 A.D.2d 778, 396 N.Y.S.2d 385 (1977) as analogous to the subject case. In Klein, the court held that the government could not put Show-World, which conducted sexually oriented activities, out of business simply by imposing fire safety codes requiring prohibitively expensive sprinkler systems. As indicated in Bostrom, at page 118, however, if a state of facts which would justify the legislation can reasonably be conceived to exist, courts must presume it did exist and the legislation was passed for that purpose. There is no requirement that the court find facts justifying the legislation. The sheriff testified in hearings before the Pierce County Board of County Commissioners that sauna parlors, with steam and high heat, are particularly susceptible to fire and represent a fire hazard. Even if massage parlors did not present such an enhanced risk, the Board might well have concluded that massage parlor patrons are particularly susceptible to fire danger. A customer wrapped in nothing but a towel during his or her massage or relaxing with his or her eyes closed in a steam room might well react less quickly to fire than customers in a more standard retail setting. Further, the Board is no more obliged to enact an all-encompassing remedy here than it is with respect to liability insurance. All businesses pose some fire hazard and the Board is not obliged to act with respect to all at once. This requirement is clearly reasonable and does not violate equal protection provisions of the constitution.