Opinion ID: 625482
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The City’s Intent.

Text: Defendants first challenge the district court’s conclusion that the City intended for the terms “owners and operators” to mean natural persons. Specifically, Defendants argue that the City’s evidence on this issue was principally provided by the testimony of Laura Gordon (“Gordon”), the City attorney who negotiated the Agreed Judgment and was “an interested party” that Defendants imply was not a credible witness. Defendants also assert that this definition of the terms “owners and operators” does not appear in the Agreed Judgment, drafts of it, or correspondence between the parties during the negotiations. Defendants contend that this means that the City could not have intended for “owners and operators” to refer to natural persons. 10 Case: 11-50450 Document: 00511789592 Page: 11 Date Filed: 03/15/2012 No. 11-50450 These arguments, however, are insufficient to create “a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed” by the district court. Boudreaux, 280 F.3d at 466. First, where a “court’s finding is based on its decision to credit the testimony of one witness over that of another, that finding, if not internally inconsistent, can virtually never be clear error.” Schlesinger, 2 F.3d at 139. Thus, a simple attack on Gordon’s credibility is insufficient to require a reversal of the district court’s findings.3 Second, while Defendants are correct to observe (and the City acknowledges), that the Agreed Judgment, drafts of it, and the correspondence between the parties do not directly reference the proposed definition of the terms “owners and operators,” these various documents did refer to Ordinance 9326, which had been the subject of the previous litigation, and defined “owners” and “operators” in terms of natural persons. Thus, the district court had evidence, in addition to Gordon’s testimony, supporting its finding. Furthermore, the district court explained that excluding natural persons from the definitions of “owners and operators” would have “contravene[d] the City’s overarching intent to regulate adult businesses that animated its desire to negotiate the narrowest possible settlement in 1995.” In light of this record, we affirm the district court’s finding that the City understood the terms “owners and operators” to include natural persons in their definitions.