Court Opinion

ID: 9615108
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:31:22.578241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:27.465706
License: Public Domain

KENNAKD, J.
I dissent. Through the Fair Employment and Housing Act1 (FEHA or the Act), this state has made a firm commitment to eradicate housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, or ancestry. (§ 12920.) To achieve this difficult and worthy goal, our statutory scheme authorizes the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (Commission), upon proof of unlawful housing discrimination forbidden by the Act, to *274award damages to the victims of that discrimination. The damages the Commission may award include compensatory damages for emotional suffering, and punitive damages in an amount not to exceed $1,000 (plus an inflation adjustment) for any practice that violates the Act.
The majority holds that administrative awards of compensatory damages for emotional suffering violate our state Constitution’s judicial powers clause, and that the Act itself limits administrative awards of punitive damages to $1,000 from each violator of the Act for multiple acts of discrimination of the same type against a single victim. These holdings, as I shall explain, are neither compelled by our state Constitution nor faithful to the language or purpose of the Act. Worse yet, they will so impair the Act’s administrative enforcement as to prevent achievement of its paramount goal.
The significance of these holdings can best be appreciated in the context of the facts of this case. In 1979, Robert Cannon, a 55-year-old African-American, applied to rent an apartment at Walnut Creek Manor, a 418-unit apartment complex for persons 55 years and older, in part because he had friends who lived there. Because of his race, Cannon remained on the waiting list for two and one-half years.
In 1982, Cannon met a non-African-American who, after only a few months on the waiting list, had rented an apartment at Walnut Creek Manor. Cannon then realized that his race was the reason no apartment had been offered him, and filed a FEHA complaint. Investigation uncovered that Walnut Creek Manor had rented 35 apartments to non-African-Americans who applied after Cannon.
At the administrative hearing, Cannon testified that as the result of Walnut Creek Manor’s refusal to rent to him, he had suffered humiliation and embarrassment. The Commission awarded Cannon $50,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $35,000 in punitive damages ($1,000 for each of the 35 violations of the Act) plus an adjustment for inflation. The majority eliminates the award for emotional distress and reduces the punitive damage award to slightly more than $1,000. I disagree with this result.
The first part of this dissenting opinion shows that the judicial powers clause of the state Constitution does not prevent the Commission from awarding damages for emotional distress. The second part explains that the Legislature has authorized the Commission to award punitive damages up to *275the statutory maximum of $1,000 for each separate act of housing discrimination.
I. The Judicial Powers Clause Does Not Preclude the Commission From Awarding Damages for Emotional Distress Caused by Housing Discrimination
FEHA, like the federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619), relies primarily on the enforcement efforts of those who have been victimized by housing discrimination. But experience has taught two important lessons about private enforcement in this field. First, private enforcement through the courts will never by itself eliminate housing discrimination because those discriminated against are too often unable or unwilling to undertake the costly and burdensome task of prosecuting a civil lawsuit. For this reason, effective administrative remedies are essential to continued private enforcement of the Act. Second, housing discrimination causes emotional distress that is often severe, but it rarely causes significant out-of-pocket losses.2 Therefore, an administrative remedy that compensates only for financial losses, and not for emotional distress, will not provide the incentive that discrimination victims need to vigorously prosecute their administrative remedies.
The inescapable conclusion to be drawn is that a system that relies on private enforcement, yet bars administrative tribunals from compensating housing discrimination victims for their emotional distress, cannot eliminate housing discrimination. Such a system is doomed to fail. For these reasons, administrative awards of compensatory damages for pain and suffering are *276reasonably necessary to effectuate FEHA’s primary purpose of eliminating housing discrimination and thus do not violate the judicial powers clause of the California Constitution (art. VI, § 1).
A. FEHA Authorizes the Commission to Award Emotional Distress Damages to the Victims of Housing Discrimination
Segregated housing patterns, which frequently confine minority groups to substandard housing, persist in many areas in California and throughout the nation. (See Schwemm, Private Enforcement and the Federal Fair Housing Act (1988) 6 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 375, 384 [hereafter Private Enforcement and Fair Housing].) Although low income undoubtedly prevents many minority group members from obtaining better housing, this case vividly demonstrates that discrimination on racial and other grounds continues to prevent individuals from obtaining housing they can well afford, a situation that Congress has recognized to be one of our most serious social problems. As one commentator has written, “The involuntary ghetto is inimical to the American dream.” (Kaplan, Discrimination in California Housing: The Need for Additional Legislation (1962) 50 Cal.L.Rev. 635, 643 [hereafter Discrimination in California Housing].) And, as the United States Supreme Court has recognized, a landlord who discriminates against a rental applicant injures not just the applicant, but the whole community. (Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Ins. (1972) 409 U.S. 205, 211 [34 L.Ed.2d 415, 420, 93 S.Ct. 364].)
FEHA declares that “the practice of discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, or ancestry in housing accommodations is . . . against public policy.” (§ 12920.) As used in FEHA, the term “housing accommodations” includes virtually all real property intended to be used as a home or residence. (§ 12927, subd. (d).) “Discrimination” includes refusing to sell, rent, or lease; misrepresenting the availability of accommodations; providing segregated housing; and providing inferior terms, facilities, or services. (§ 12927, subd. (c).) FEHA’s stated purpose is to “eliminate such discriminatory practices.” (§ 12920.)
A person who has suffered housing discrimination can seek redress by filing a verified complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (Department). (§ 12960.) The Department investigates the complaint and seeks to conciliate the dispute. (§§ 12963, 12963.7.) It then has two options: It may issue “a right-to-sue letter” permitting the complaining party to seek redress in a civil lawsuit (§ 12980, subd. (d)); or, when necessary and appropriate, it may issue an accusatory pleading initiating a *277hearing before the Commission (§ 12981). (See Rojo v. Kliger (1990) 52 Cal.3d 65, 72 [276 Cal.Rptr. 130, 801 P.2d 373].)
If the Department issues an accusation and the Commission concludes after a hearing that the Act has been violated, the Commission must issue “an order requiring [the] respondent to cease and desist” the discriminatory practice. (§ 12987.) In addition, the Commission may take whatever other steps it deems necessary to achieve the Act’s stated goal of eliminating housing discrimination. These additional steps include requiring the respondent to sell or rent the housing (or comparable housing) to the complainant, and awarding the complainant “actual damages.” (Ibid.) As the majority acknowledges (maj. opn., ante, p. 255), the term “actual damages” includes damages for emotional suffering. In the context of damage awards, emotional suffering includes mortification, humiliation, indignity, grief, anxiety, and worry. (Thing v. La Chusa (1989) 48 Cal.3d 644, 648-649 [257 Cal.Rptr. 865, 771 P.2d 814].) The constitutional validity of the legislative authorization for the Commission to award emotional distress damages is one of the two issues presented by this case.
B. Congress Has Recognized the Necessity of Effective Administrative Remedies for Housing Discrimination
An administrative tribunal’s ability to compensate discrimination victims with meaningful damage awards is crucial to eliminating discrimination in housing. This is demonstrated by the history of FEHA’s federal counterpart, the Fair Housing Act, and by the congressional findings supporting recent amendments of that legislation.
The federal Fair Housing Act is similar in both purpose and content to FEHA.3 Like FEHA, the federal law depends on private enforcement to achieve its policy goals. (See Private Enforcement and Fair Housing, supra, 6 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 375, 378.) The United States Supreme Court has observed that “complaints by private persons are the primary method of obtaining compliance with the [Fair Housing] Act.” (Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Ins., supra, 409 U.S. 205, 209 [34 L.Ed.2d 415, 419].) When the victims of housing discrimination enforce the fair housing laws, they “act not only on their own behalf but also ‘as private attorneys general in *278vindicating a policy that Congress considered to be of the highest priority.’ ” (Id. at p. 211 [34 L.Ed.2d at p. 420].)
Private enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act has been frustrated, however, by the difficulty of pursuing court actions. As one commentator notes: “[T]he prospect of hiring a lawyer and filing a lawsuit is not appealing to many people, and this problem is especially acute in the housing field. The very fact that an individual or a family is in the market for new housing often means that their lives are in a state of flux,” which frequently makes bringing a civil lawsuit “a practical impossibility.” (Private Enforcement and Fair Housing, supra, 6 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. at p. 380.) Other commentators agree that allowing victims of housing discrimination to bring court actions cannot alone eradicate discriminatory housing practices. (Discrimination in California Housing, supra, 50 Cal.L.Rev. 635, 642, fn. 42 [“Given the expenses emanating from a lengthy trial, the doubt as to the outcome, immediate need for housing, and the difficulty in calculating damages, many victims of [housing] discrimination may not (or cannot) initiate court action.”].)
Compared to a court action, an administrative proceeding is simple to initiate. There are no complex procedural requirements that would require the complainant to seek out and retain private counsel. And administrative proceedings usually produce decisions and remedies more quickly than judicial proceedings.
For administrative proceedings to be truly effective, however, they must offer meaningful compensation to the claimant. The federal experience shows that the single most important component of an effective fair housing program is the administrative agency’s enforcement authority. If that authority is weak, the statutory scheme will not succeed.
As originally enacted, the federal Fair Housing Act offered no effective administrative redress of private claims because the powers of HUD, the administrative agency charged with enforcing the federal law, were limited to “informal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion.” (Former 42 U.S.C. § 3610(a); Pub.L. No. 90-284 (Apr. 11, 1968) tit. VIII, § 810, 82 Stat. 85.) A victim of housing discrimination could obtain equitable relief and money damages only by prevailing in a civil lawsuit. The limitation on HUD’s enforcement authority was widely criticized because, as noted above, discrimination victims pursue the alternate route of prosecuting a court action too infrequently to make private tort actions an effective method of combating housing discrimination. (See, e.g., Kushner, An Unfinished Agenda: The Federal Fair Housing Enforcement Effort (1988) 6 Yale L. & *279Pol’y Rev. 348, 354; Private Enforcement and Fair Housing, supra, 6 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 375, 380.)
Congress acknowledged the validity of these criticisms in 1988. It found that discrimination and segregation in housing remained pervasive 20 years after the federal law was enacted, noting HUD’s estimate that 2 million instances of housing discrimination occur each year. (House Rep. of the Judiciary Com. (hereafter House Report), 1988 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News, at p. 2176.) Based on this experience, Congress determined that the principal defect in the existing law, which prevented it from achieving the goal of eradicating discrimination in housing, was the absence of an effective administrative enforcement mechanism (ibid.), and that an administrative proceeding should be the primary method by which persons aggrieved by discriminatory housing practices obtain redress (id. at p. 2200). For the express purpose of providing effective administrative remedies, Congress passed die Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. (42 U.S.C. § 3612; House Rep., supra, 1988 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News, at pp. 2173-2175.)
These amendments added aggressive administrative enforcement capabilities to the fair housing provisions of the federal act. They provide for agency enforcement of private claims before an administrative law judge, who is empowered, upon a finding of housing discrimination, to award appropriate relief including compensatory damages,4 injunctive relief, other equitable relief, and civil penalties of a maximum of $10,000 for a first violation and up to $50,000 for two or more violations within a seven-year period. (42 U.S.C. § 3612(b), (g); House Rep., supra, 1988 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News, at p. 2198.) The amendments thus reflect the considered judgment of Congress that effective administrative remedies, including the ability to impose damages and penalties in addition to equitable relief, are vital to the elimination of housing discrimination.
*280C. California Law Has Also Acknowledged That Effective Administrative Remedies Are Essential to Eliminate Housing Discrimination
The history of California fair housing laws is also instructive. Before 1963, California fair housing laws were criticized for failing to provide any administrative remedy. (Discrimination in California Housing, supra, 50 Cal.L.Rev. 635, 642-643.) In that year, and long before the federal government recognized that eliminating housing discrimination hinged on effective administrative enforcement, the California Legislature provided such enforcement. The Rumford Fair Housing Act (former Health & Saf. Code, § 35700 et seq., enacted by Stats. 1963, ch. 1853, §§ 2-4, pp. 3823-3830) authorized the Commission to award damages as an alternative to equitable relief. Subsequent amendments expanded the Commission’s authority to award damages by permitting cumulative awards of damages and equitable remedies and by raising the monetary limit on damage awards. (See maj. opn., ante, p. 260.)
The Legislature combined the then-separate housing and employment antidiscrimination provisions into FEHA in 1980. From the outset, FEHA has authorized administrative awards of equitable relief and damages. (§ 12987.) One year after enacting FEHA, the Legislature amended it to increase the Commission’s authority to award damages by removing the limit on the amount of actual damages. (See maj. opn., ante, p. 260.) These repeated expansions of the Commission’s power to award actual damages reflect the Legislature’s recognition that tough administrative enforcement powers are necessary to eradicate discrimination in housing.
This case illustrates the practical advantages of administrative enforcement. The claimant, Robert Cannon, met with an attorney one time for less than two hours at a cost of $300. It appears Cannon then filed his own FEHA claim, and thereafter has not been represented by counsel either before the Commission or in court. Instead, the Department, after satisfying itself of the validity of Cannon’s claim, has prosecuted the action in its own name.
The effectiveness of the administrative remedy will be destroyed, however, if the Commission is deprived of authority to award compensation for nonmonetary injuries. This is because in most housing cases, the “out-of-pocket damages are de minimis.” (Private Enforcement and Fair Housing, supra, 6 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 375, 380.) Even though administrative proceedings are less burdensome to claimants than prosecuting a court case, they do involve a significant investment of time and effort. Unless the *281administrative forum can continue to offer meaningful redress, many persons who have clearly suffered invidious discrimination may simply forgo their claims. The Commission’s authority to compensate for emotional distress is therefore crucial to effective enforcement. To deny that authority is to frustrate the statutory goal of ensuring that housing applicants in California will have free and equal access to available housing, limited only by their financial means.
D. The Judicial Powers Clause Does Not Deprive the Commission of Its Statutory Authority to Compensate Victims of Housing Discrimination for Their Emotional Distress
The majority concludes that administrative awards of general compensatory damages for pain and suffering are not “reasonably necessary” to effectuate FEHA’s primary purpose and thus violate the judicial powers clause of the state Constitution. (Maj. opn., ante, p. 265.) The analysis offered in support of this conclusion is fundamentally flawed.
In McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd. (1989) 49 Cal.3d 348, 372-374 [261 Cal.Rptr. 318, 777 P.2d 91], we interpreted our state Constitution’s judicial powers clause (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 1) as setting both a procedural and a substantive limitation on an administrative agency’s exercise of powers that are constitutionally reserved to the judiciary. Because administrative orders made under FEHA are subject to judicial review, the procedural limitation is not in issue here.5
The substantive limitation, as we explained in McHugh, prohibits administrative agencies from exercising “judicial-like” powers only when those powers are not “reasonably necessary to effectuate the agency’s primary, legitimate regulatory purposes.” (McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd., supra, 49 Cal.3d 348, 372, italics omitted.) Thus, so long as administrative awards of damages to compensate individual victims for pain and suffering resulting from discrimination made unlawful by FEHA are “reasonably necessary” to achieve FEHA’s primary, legitimate regulatory purpose, such awards do not violate the judicial powers clause.
FEHA’s primary and legitimate purpose is the elimination of discriminatory housing practices. As I have shown, FEHA, like its federal counterpart, relies on private enforcement to achieve its policy goal. FEHA includes *282awards of compensatory damages in the administrative arsenal of remedies as an essential means of furthering its statutory objective. Such damages are thus reasonably necessary to effectuate the Act, and therefore do not conflict with the powers that our state Constitution reserves to the judiciary.
In reaching its contrary conclusion, the majority misapprehends FEHA’s purpose. It characterizes that purpose as providing “a streamlined and economic procedure for preventing and redressing discrimination in housing as an alternative to the more cumbersome and costly procedure of civil suit.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 264.) Certainly, it is important that FEHA’s administrative procedure be both “streamlined and economic.” But to say, as the majority does, that this is FEHA’s primary goal is to mistake its means for its end. An administrative proceeding may be streamlined and economic, and yet be completely ineffective in eliminating discriminatory housing practices. Indeed, this will be the practical effect of the majority’s holding.
The majority need not guess at the legislative purpose underlying FEHA; it need only recognize what the Legislature itself has expressed to be FEHA’s stated purpose: “to provide effective remedies which will eliminate such discriminatory [housing] practices.” (§ 12920.) Because administrative awards that compensate victims of housing discrimination for their emotional distress serve to achieve this goal, they are “reasonably necessary” and thus satisfy the test this court enunciated in McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd., supra, 49 Cal.3d 348.
The majority concedes that “compensatory damages serve to deter discrimination” (maj. opn., ante, p. 258), but then concludes that deterring discrimination is not relevant to the issue in this case (ibid.). The majority misses the point. Whether compensatory damages serve in any significant way to further FEHA’s underlying purpose is precisely the issue; because they do, administrative awards of such damages do not violate the judicial powers clause.
II. FEHA Authorizes the Commission to Award Punitive Damages Up to the Statutory Maximum for Each Act of Housing Discrimination
The other issue presented by this case is the scope of the Commission’s authority to award punitive damages. FEHA authorizes the Commission to order the payment “of punitive damages in an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars,” plus an adjustment for inflation, upon a finding that “a respondent has engaged in any unlawful practice” as defined by the Act. (§ 12987, subd. (2), italics added.) In this case, the Commission found 35 *283separate instances in which Walnut Creek Manor’s owner and rental manager had violated FEHA by renting to non-African-American applicants while Cannon’s application was pending. For these repeated FEHA violations, the Commission awarded Cannon $40,635 in punitive damages, that is, $1,000 for each discriminatory act, plus an adjustment for inflation. The majority has limited that award to $1,000 plus the inflation adjustment, reasoning that the term “unlawful practice” as used in the statute denotes an entire course of any one form of discriminatory conduct against one particular victim. I disagree. As used in section 12987, “unlawful practice” means any single act in violation of FEHA.
The controlling issue in interpreting the language of any statute is the intent of the Legislature. (People v. Jeffers (1987) 43 Cal.3d 984, 993 [239 Cal.Rptr. 886, 741 P.2d 1127]; Milligan v. City of Laguna Beach (1983) 34 Cal.3d 829, 831 [196 Cal.Rptr. 38, 670 P.2d 1121].) To determine that intent, we look first to the words of the statute, construing them in context, while harmonizing “both internally and with each other, to the extent possible” those statutes or statutory sections that pertain to the same subject matter. (Dyna-Med, Inc. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1379, 1386-1387 [241 Cal.Rptr. 67, 743 P.2d 1323].)
Viewed in isolation, the language of section 12987 is ambiguous on the point at issue. The statute does not expressly provide that the punitive damage limit applies to each distinct act of discrimination, to each separate form of discrimination, or jointly to all discriminatory acts of whatever form. The meaning of ambiguous statutory language should be “determined with reference to whole system of law of which it is a part . . . .” (Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Gillespie (1990) 50 Cal.3d 82, 99-100 [266 Cal.Rptr. 117, 785 P.2d 500].) Therefore, to ascertain the Legislature’s intent, I look first to FEHA’s other provisions.
The term “unlawful practice” appears in two sections of FEHA in addition to section 12987. Section 12960 authorizes persons who claim to be aggrieved by an alleged “unlawful practice” to file a verified complaint with the Department, while section 12965, subdivision (a) states that if efforts at conciliation and persuasion fail to eliminate the “unlawful practice,” the Department can file an accusation. The statutory scheme is best harmonized by interpreting the term “unlawful practice” as having the same meaning in all three instances. As the majority acknowledges, a single act of discrimination will support the filing of either a complaint under section 12960 or a Department accusation under section 12965. (Maj. opn., ante, p. 269.) Thus, the term “unlawful practice” in section 12987 should be similarly interpreted *284as meaning any single act of discrimination. In this way, each “unlawful practice” sufficient to justify a complaint or accusation also justifies a punitive damage award up to the statutory limit.
In interpreting any statute, “[t]he object to be achieved and the evil to be prevented are prime considerations in determining legislative intent.” (People v. Jeffers, supra, 43 Cal.3d 984, 997, citing Judson Steel Corp. v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1978) 22 Cal.3d 658, 669 [150 Cal.Rptr. 250, 586 P.2d 564].) A court should arrive at an interpretation that promotes the general purpose and policy of the law, not one that defeats it. (Harry Carian Sales v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1985) 39 Cal.3d 209, 223 [216 Cal.Rptr. 688, 703 P.2d 27], quoting People v. Centr-O-Mart (1950) 34 Cal.2d 702, 704 [214 P.2d 378].) FEHA itself states that its provisions “shall be construed liberally” to effectuate its purposes. (§ 12993.)
In the housing field, as I have noted, FEHA’s purpose is “to provide effective remedies which will eliminate such discriminatory [housing] practices.” (§ 12920.) This court must therefore liberally construe any ambiguous provision in the manner that best achieves this objective. In general, punitive damage awards serve “to punish and through punishment, to deter.” (Dyna-Med, Inc. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com., supra, 43 Cal.3d 1379, 1387.) Punitive damage awards serve FEHA’s goal of providing effective remedies to eliminate discriminatory housing practices by deterring such practices. The deterrent effect will be greater if the punitive damage limit is applied separately to each discriminatory act, rather than jointly to a succession of such acts. This construction, therefore, best satisfies the legislative command that FEHA’s provisions be liberally construed to achieve the Act’s objectives.
The majority limits a landlord’s potential punitive damage exposure to $1,000 per victim, no matter how many discriminatory acts the landlord commits, so long as the discriminatory acts are of the same type. (Maj. opn., ante, p. 270.) This statutory construction means that a landlord who once discriminates against an applicant has little reason not to continue to do so. Here, for example, the Commission found that the landlord had discriminated against Cannon 35 times by renting to more recent applicants, yet the majority limits the Commission to a single $1,000 award of punitive damages, just as if there had been but a single act of discrimination. This $1,000 award is little punishment for a landlord who has committed as many violations of FEHA as occurred here. As the majority interprets it, section 12987 will neither deter repeated acts of housing discrimination nor advance FEHA’s statutory objective.
*285The majority’s reading of section 12987 makes the number of victims the dispositive factor in determining the scope of the Commission’s authority to award punitive damages. This focus on the number of victims, rather than the culpability of the wrongdoer, is inconsistent with the deterrent purpose of punitive damages. Moreover, an amendment to section 12987 deleting language that linked the $1,000 maximum punitive damage award to “the aggrieved person” is further indication of legislative intent that the availability of such awards not be dependent on the number of victims.
The prior version of section 12987, subdivision (2), authorized the Commission to award “punitive damages to the aggrieved person in an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars.” (Former § 12987, subd. (2), added by Stats. 1980, ch. 992, § 4, p. 3162.) In 1981, the Legislature amended subdivision (2) of section 12987, deleting the reference to “the aggrieved person.” (Stats. 1981, ch. 899, § 3, p. 3424.) “[A] material change in the phraseology of a legislative enactment is ordinarily viewed as showing an intention on the part of the legislature to change the meaning of the statute.” (McDonough Power Equipment Co. v. Superior Court (1972) 8 Cal.3d 527, 534, fn. 5 [105 Cal.Rptr. 330, 503 P.2d 1338].) The Legislature’s deletion of the “aggrieved person” language from section 12987 is one more indication of legislative intent that the statute’s $1,000 limit on an administrative award of punitive damages not depend solely on the number of persons aggrieved by the discrimination. This conclusion is also consistent with the Commission’s interpretation of section 12987.
In this case, the Commission has interpreted section 12987 to allow an award of punitive damages to a single victim for each wrongful act in violation of FEHA. (See also Dept. Fair Empl. & Hous. v. Green (1986) No. 86-07, FEHC Precedential Decs. 1986-1987, CEB 1, pp. 12, 14].) Courts give great weight to an agency’s construction of a statute it is charged with administering (Highland Ranch, v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1981) 29 Cal.3d 848, 859 [176 Cal.Rptr. 753, 633 P.2d 949]), and generally will follow that construction “unless it is clearly erroneous” (San Mateo City School Dist. v. Public Employment Relations Bd. (1983) 33 Cal.3d 850, 856 [191 Cal.Rptr. 800, 663 P.2d 523]). Here, the Commission’s construction of the punitive damage limit as applying to each separate discriminatory act is not plainly erroneous and therefore should be followed by this court.
The majority is of the view that its construction of section 12987 is necessary to preserve the constitutionality of the statute because a contrary interpretation would conflict with the judicial powers clause of our state Constitution. (Maj opn., ante, p. 271.) I disagree. Administrative punitive damage awards up to the statutory maximum for each separate act of housing *286discrimination are reasonably necessary to deter housing discrimination; therefore, they comport with the substantive limitations on administrative exercise of judicial powers. Moreover, as I shall discuss, the majority’s treatment of multiple punitive damage awards in relation to the judicial powers clause is fundamentally inconsistent.
In McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd., supra, 49 Cal.3d at pages 378-379, this court relied on the judicial powers clause to strike down a portion of the Santa Monica rent control ordinance that authorized administrative awards of treble damages. We identified section 12987 as a statute that would not violate judicial powers because the punitive damages it authorized were “relatively minor” and it “set a cap on such awards.” (McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd., supra, at p. 378 & fn. 46.)
Here, the majority approves multiple punitive damage awards against one landlord, provided each award is payable to a different victim or based on a different form of discrimination. In so doing, the majority necessarily concedes that multiple punitive damage awards made under these circumstances are “relatively minor” and in an amount “capped” by statute, and thus not violative of the judicial powers clause as explicated in McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd., supra, 49 Cal.3d 348. Yet if multiple punitive damage awards to different victims or to the same victim based on different forms of discrimination are constitutional because they are relatively minor and capped by statute, then under the majority’s own logic multiple punitive damage awards to the same victim based on multiple acts of the same type of discrimination should be no less offensive to the judicial powers clause. The majority fails to cover this gap in its constitutional reasoning.
In my view, the Commission correctly interpreted section 12987 to authorize an award of up to $1,000 in punitive damages for each separate act of housing discrimination.
III. Conclusion
The persistence of discriminatory housing practices and the history of state and federal efforts to combat them demonstrate that past remedial measures have not been sufficient and that vigorous administrative enforcement, with meaningful compensatory and punitive damage awards, offers the best available means to ensure a free and nondiscriminatory housing market.
The refusal to provide housing on grounds made unlawful by FEHA is invidious not simply because the applicant is denied housing, but also
*287because the act of discrimination itself demeans basic human dignity. By stripping the Commission of its statutory authority to compensate the victims of such discrimination for emotional distress—in the name of preserving judicial prerogatives under the state Constitution—and by severely restricting the Commission’s statutory authority to punish repeated acts of discrimination with awards of punitive damages, the majority destroys vital components of a carefully structured statutory system, setting that system up to fail.
Broussard, J., concurred.

Government Code section 12900 et seq.; all further statutory references are to this code unless otherwise stated.

This case illustrates the point. Cannon’s out-of-pocket loss was $2,724.50, including attorney fees. He did, however, suffer substantial compensable loss in the form of emotional distress. The superior court judge who reviewed the Commission results described its $50,000 compensatory damage award to Cannon as “moderate enough for being passed over and, therefore humiliated, as many times as occurred.”
The Commission made these findings in support of its award for emotional distress:
“[Cannon] felt comfortable with the social and financial level he had achieved. [He] felt confident of his ability to rent an apartment because it was within his financial means and self-perceived social class. He referred to himself as someone who did not try for things ‘out of his league’ financially or socially because he ‘hated to be rejected.’ It never occurred to Cannon that he would not get an apartment in the Manor if he were patient and waited his turn. [1] Being denied housing at the Manor had a profound effect on Cannon’s self-esteem and caused him considerable pain, humiliation and embarrassment. The rejection affected his friendships with other residents at Walnut Creek Manor. . . . The rejection also affected Cannon’s ability to look for other housing, discouraging him and making him worry that he would be rejected again.” Cannon expressed feelings of “pain and bewilderment” at his rejection, “he thought about it at night,” and felt “frustrated ... by the realization that his record as a good tenant and a person who got along with all kinds of people was irrelevant to [getting accepted by Walnut Creek Manor]."

Indeed, FEHA bears more than a passing resemblance to the federal act. The Secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must identify those state and local programs that approximate the federal Fair Housing Act, and has certified FEHA “as substantially similar to the rights and remedies provided under the federal Act.” (52 Fed.Reg. 81 (Apr. 28, 1987) pp. 15304-15305.)

The federal act authorizes HUD to award “actual damages." (42 U.S.C. § 3612(g)(3).) Under federal regulations, such damages may include “damages caused by humiliation and embarrassment.” (24 C.F.R. § 104.910(b)(1).) Recently, the Eleventh Circuit enforced a decision and order by an administrative law judge awarding $40,000 in damages to a husband and wife for the emotional pain they suffered when the owner of a single family residence repudiated a sales contract with them because he learned they were African-American. (Secretary, HUD on Behalf of Herron v. Blackwell (11th Cir. 1990) 908 F.2d 864, 872.) The court found the award “rational and fully supported by the record.” (Ibid.) The court cited this testimony by the wife, which is similar to testimony of the claimant in this case: “ ‘I feel that everything that has been fought for over the last 30 years . . . was a waste of lives, a waste of time on the part of all those people who worked so hard for equal justice. . . . Our lives have been put on hold because we are not allowed to live where we can afford and choose to live.’ ” (Id. at p. 873.)

FEHA administrative determinations are subject to mandamus review (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5) and are enforceable only by superior court order, and then only when all avenues of judicial review have been exhausted or the time for such review has lapsed (§ 12973, subd. (b)).