Opinion ID: 2603734
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Introduction and Summary of Decision

Text: We consider in this case two issues involving interpretation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civ. Code, §§ 51, 52; hereafter the Unruh Act or the Act; all statutory references are to the Civil Code unless otherwise indicated): (1) does the Act proscribe, as economic discrimination, a landlord's requirement that prospective tenants have gross monthly incomes of at least three times the rent to be charged (the minimum income policy) and (2) can a female plaintiff state a cause of action under the Act by alleging that the minimum income policy has an adverse or disparate impact on women? Our review of the language and history of the Act indicates that both questions must be answered in the negative. The Unruh Act prohibits denial of access to public accommodations based on specified classifications (i.e., race, sex, religion and others). Economic and financial distinctions are not among the impermissible classifications listed in the statute. Although our decisions have occasionally recognized additional categories of prohibited discrimination (e.g., physical appearance and family status), those categories were based on personal characteristics of individuals that bore little or no relationship to their abilities to be responsible consumers of public accommodations. We find no support in the language or history of the Act for extending our past holdings to encompass economic criteria, which by their nature seek to further the legitimate interest of business establishments in controlling financial risk while providing goods and services on a nondiscriminatory basis. As to the second issue before us, the language and history of the Unruh Act indicate that the legislative object was to prohibit intentional discrimination in access to public accommodations. We have been directed to no authority, nor have we located any, that would justify extension of a disparate impact test, which has been developed and applied by the federal courts primarily in employment discrimination cases, to a general discrimination-in-public-accommodations statute like the Unruh Act. Although evidence of adverse impact on a particular group of persons may have probative value in public accommodations cases and should therefore be admitted in appropriate cases subject to the general rules of evidence, a plaintiff must nonetheless plead and prove a case of intentional discrimination to recover under the Act.