Court Opinion

ID: 9726151
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:34:40.520519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:23.747315
License: Public Domain

McCLOSKY, J.-I dissent:
I
I agree with the majority that “[i]t is an established rule of law that on appeals from judgments granting or denying injunctions, the law to be applied is that which is current at the time of judgment in the appellate court.” (Majority opn., ante, p. 640; Kash Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles (1977) 19 Cal.3d 294, 306, fn. 6 [138 Cal.Rptr. 53, 562 P.2d 1302]; see also City & County of S. F. v. Budde (1956) 139 Cal.App.2d 10, 12 [292 P.2d 955] and Complete Serv. Bur. v. San Diego County Med. Soc. (1954) 43 Cal.2d 201, 207 [272 P.2d 497].) From that valid principle of law, the majority concludes that we should decide this case on the basis of Ordinance No. 2254. Based upon the fact that Ordinance No. 2254 is not the current law, I disagree with that conclusion.
Ordinance No. 2254 was enacted as an urgency measure on February 3, 1981, in response to the trial court’s proposed interpretation of the original Ordinance No. 2138 (§ 9512, subd. (2)(c)). As the majority notes, the trial court took judicial notice of Ordinance No. 2254, but based its later judgment on the language contained in the original Ordinance No. 2138 prior to the enactment of No. 2254.
It is my view that in so doing the trial court was correct. At the time it gave judgment, consideration of the validity of Ordinance No. 2254 was not properly before the trial court and I do not believe that it is properly before us now. Section 3 of Ordinance No. 2254 provides as follows:
“Section 3. That Section 9512.1 is hereby added to the Whittier Municipal Code to read as follows:
“ ‘9512.1 - Alternate Special Regulations .The special regulations set forth in this section shall apply to all uses which are subject to the provisions of this part if for any reason any of the special regulations set forth in Section 9512 hereof are declared invalid as applied to any such use. ” (Italics added.)
At the time the trial court gave its judgment, there was no final judgment or judgment on appeal declaring any of the provisions of section 9512 of *646Ordinance No. 2138 invalid. The record on appeal reflects no change in that situation to this date. That being so, there was no way the trial court could have properly considered the constitutionality of the provisions of Ordinance No. 2254, nor by which we may properly do so now. That ordinance, by its own terms, becomes operative only “if for any reason any of the special regulations set forth in Section 9512 [enacted by Ordinance No. 2138] hereof are declared invalid as applied to any such use.” That was an event which had not, and to this day has not, occurred.
It is one thing to hold, as Kash Enterprises quite properly does, that the relevant law is that which exists at the time of the judgment on appeal. It is quite a different, and in my view an impermissible thing for the majority to hold that it will “reach the issue of the validity of the substitute ordinance (No. 2254)” because “[b]y this decision, Ordinance No. 2254 will become operative.” That is a premature leap I am unwilling to take. The flaw in the majority’s conclusion is that there is no existing final judgment on appeal declaring the original Ordinance No. 2138 invalid. (See majority opn., ante, p. 640.) Assuming no petition for hearing is filed with the Supreme Court, the earliest the majority’s decision could become final—and thus operative— would be 30 days after its filing. There is thus no judgment on appeal that is final or operative now.
II
We are directed by the Supreme Court’s order of May 19, 1983, retransferring this matter to us, to reconsider our previous order which precluded “further proceedings to resolve the factual issue posed by paragraphs 6(a) and 8 of the Stipulation of Facts filed November 13, 1979, included at p. 196 of the Clerk’s Transcript.”
Paragraph 6 of that stipulation, among other things, recited that Shawn F. Campbell, a named defendant in consolidated action No. SEC 29231, “. . . if sworn as a witness should testify, subject to objection hereinafter stated, as follows: ...”
After stating his proposed testimony, the stipulation then went on to provide:
“7. That Plaintiff objects, on grounds of relevancy, to the testimony offered in Section 6(a), (b) and (c) of this Stipulation; and
“8. That if the objection above were to be overruled, Plaintiff would call as a witness Elvin H. Porter, who would testify under oath, as follows:
*647“(a) That he has been the Planning Director of the City of Whittier for over fifteen (15) years; and
“(b) That he is fully familiar with the City’s Zoning Regulations and the Zoning Map included therein, and that in his opinion, there are other locations within the boundaries of the City of Whittier, on commercially and industrially zoned properties, where ‘adult businesses’, defined as such in the said Zoning Regulations, could be located; ...”
The stipulation thus provided that city would call Elvin H. Porter as a witness only “if the objection above [on the ground of relevancy] were to be overruled.” It never was. In fact, as the majority concedes, the record on appeal reveals no ruling as to it. It accordingly follows that, having waived such ruling below, city may not now rely on the testimony of Elvin H. Porter that it offered only on the nonoccurring condition that its objection to Shawn F. Campbell’s testimony was overruled. That left the record devoid of any evidence whatsoever to support city’s position in regard to location.
I fully agree that the mere fact that the commercial exploitation of material protected by the First Amendment is subject to zoning and other licensing requirements is not sufficient reason for invalidating an ordinance. A zoning ordinance is not invalid merely because it regulates activity protected under the First Amendment, where the challenged restriction on the location of adult movies imposes a minimal burden on the protected speech. (Young v. American Mini Theatres (1976) 427 U.S. 50, 62, 63 [49 L.Ed.2d 310, 321-322, 96 S.Ct. 2440]; see also Schad v. Mount Ephraim, supra, 452 U.S. 61, 71 [68 L.Ed.2d 671, 682].) A zoning law which is alleged to threaten First Amendment rights is, however, subject to close scrutiny to pass constitutional muster. Such zoning law affecting the location of adult theatres and bookstores is valid only so long as it does not have the effect of significantly reducing the numbers of such businesses and their availability to the public. (Alexander v. City of Minneapolis (D.Minn. 1982) 531 F.Supp. 1162, 1170.)
In assessing the reasonableness of a regulation, the courts must weigh heavily the facts and the communication involved. To be reasonable, the regulation must be narrowly tailored to further the state’s legitimate interest and the regulation’s time, place and manner restrictions not only must serve significant state interests but must leave open adequate alternative channels of communication. (Schad v. Mount Ephraim (1981) 452 U.S. 61, 76 [68 L.Ed.2d 671, 685, 101 S.Ct. 2176].) In Schad, the borough excluded all live adult entertainment and there was no evidence in the record to support the proposition that that kind of entertainment was available in reasonably *648nearby areas. In Basiardanes v. City of Galveston (5th Cir. 1982) 682 F.2d 1203, the zoning ordinance was held not reasonable as to time, place and manner where the ordinance banned adult theatres outright from much of the city, few access roads led to permitted locations and the permissible locations were in undeveloped areas near warehouses and swamps. Galveston’s law suppressed speech because it banned adult theatres outright from much of the city by putting them at a great distance. (682 F.2d at p. 1214.)
In Alexander v. City of Minneapolis, supra, 531 F.Supp. 1162, where the zoning ordinance significantly curtailed the public’s access to adult books and films as there would not have been a single location in the city for opening of new theatres and bookstores, the court declared the city’s zoning ordinance unconstitutional as going beyond mere locational restrictions.
Ill
As Walnut’s claims are grounded in the First Amendment, city has the burden of overcoming the presumption that the ordinance is invalid because it impinges on freedom of expression. (Schad v. Mount Ephraim, supra, 452 U.S. 61.) The zoning ordinance must be narrowly drawn to further a sufficiently substantial government interest, and unless the ordinance advances significant governmental interests and accomplishes such advancement without undue restraint of speech, the ordinance is invalid. The city must buttress its assertion with evidence that the state interest has a basis in fact and that the factual basis was considered by the city in passing the ordinance. (Avalon Cinema Corp. v. Thompson, (8th Cir. 1981) 667 F.2d 659, 661.) The record on appeal in this matter before us fails to support the conclusion that the city sustained its burden of overcoming the presumption of invalidity by proving that the ordinance in question was narrowly drawn, that it advanced a significant governmental interest without undue restraint of speech and that the state interest in fact or that the factual basis was considered by the city in passing the ordinance.
The majority, relying on County of Sacramento v. Superior Court (1982) 137 Cal.App.3d 448, 454-455 [187 Cal.Rptr. 154], holds that identical ordinances need not be tested anew each time they are enacted by a different governmental entity by establishing the actual existence of local conditions which would justify it since lawmakers in one locale should not be denied the benefit of the wisdom and experience of lawmakers in another community. From that premise, they conclude that since sociologists and urban planners have testified that a concentration of adult movie theatres in limited areas lead to the deterioration of surrounding neighborhoods (see Young v. American Mini Theatres, supra, 427 U.S. 50, 80 [49 L.Ed.2d 310, 332]), City need not bring its own sociologists to apply these observations to the *649City of Whittier. (See also Strand Property Corp. v. Municipal Court (1983) 148 Cal.App.3d 882, 47 Cal.Rptr. 200].)
In my view, we need not decide that question since the necessary factual premise for it is wholly lacking in the case before us. Far from there being any evidence that there was any concentration of adult movie theatres in any part of the City of Whittier or any possibility that there would be any, there was no evidence presented to the trial court that there was more than the one theatre operated by the respondent.
I conclude that the only current existing and operative ordinance was the original Ordinance No. 2138. I agree with the majority that that ordinance is unconstitutional. Moreover I find no competent evidence in the record to support the city’s position that there were other available commercially or industrially zoned locations within the city where an adult business of the nature of respondent’s could be located.
I therefore see no basis in law or equity for a reversal or for a further remand to the trial court.
I would affirm the judgment.
A petition for a rehearing was denied January 3, 1984. McClosky, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied February 2, 1984.