Court Opinion

ID: 9558109
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:02:59.604238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:19.623963
License: Public Domain

RICHARDSON, J.
I respectfully dissent.
This case illustrates a truism: the answer to a legal question frequently depends upon how the question is phrased. If the issue before us is, as framed by the majority (ante, p. 744) should we approve “wholesale discrimination against children,” or the “universal exclusion of children from housing” or sanction “the sacrifice of the well-being of children on the altar of a landlord’s profit, or possibly some tenants’ convenience,” the answer is a thundering “no.” We’ll choose children over a landlord’s profit and greed every time. If, however, the question is put a little differently, and we inquire—do our middle aged or older citizens, having worked long and hard, having raised their own children, having paid both their taxes and their dues to society retain a right to spend their remaining years in a relatively quiet, peaceful and tranquil environment of their own choice? The answer to such a question is, why not? There are two conflicting social policies present in this case, and a just society including its law courts should try to accommodate and serve them both.
The majority does not identify any constitutional violations here. Rather it bases its sweeping holding exclusively on the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civ. Code, § 51). Section 51 provides as follows: “All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind *746whatsoever. [¶] This section shall not be construed to confer any right or privilege on a person which is conditioned or limited by law or which is applicable alike to persons of every sex, color, race, religion, ancestry, or national origin.”
We closely examined this section in In re Cox (1970) 3 Cal. 3d 205 [90 Cal.Rptr. 24, 474 P.2d 992], and held that its enumeration of prohibited forms of discrimination was “illustrative, rather than restrictive” (p. 212) and not only incorporated those rights which were declared by this court to exist under former civil rights legislation dealing with places of “public accommodation and amusement” (see Stoumen v. Reilly (1951) 37 Cal.2d 713 [234 P.2d 969]; Orloff v. Los Angeles Turf Club (1951) 36 Cal.2d 734 [227 P.2d 449]) but also extended those rights, in the words of the statute, to “all business establishments of every kind whatsoever.” Thus, we concluded, the Unruh Act does more than prohibit the enumerated forms of discrimination in all business establishments. “[B]oth its history and its language disclose a clear and large design to interdict all arbitrary discrimination by a business enterprise.” (3 Cal.3d, at p. 212, italics added.) Having so held, we were very careful to explain that this ban, however comprehensive in scope, was not absolute in application. There was no violation of the Unruh Act, we noted, by the establishment and enforcement of “reasonable regulations that are rationally related to the services performed and facilities provided.” (Ibid., italics added.)
It seems clear to me that Marina Point (1) is a “business establishment” within the meaning of, and therefore subject to, the Unruh Act (Flowers v. John Burnham & Co. (1971) 21 Cal.App.3d 700, 703 [98 Cal.Rptr. 644]; Swann v. Burkett (1962) 209 Cal.App.2d 685, 694-695 [26 Cal.Rptr. 286]; cf. Abstract Investment Co. v. Hutchinson (1962) 204 Cal.App.2d 242, 254-255 [22 Cal.Rptr. 309]; see also 56 Ops. Cal.Atty.Gen. 546 (1973)), and (2) has not violated the Unruh Act if its rental policy was a “reasonable regulation [] ... rationally related to the services performed and facilities provided.” (Cox, supra, 3 Cal.3d at p. 212.) Under the circumstances of this case, the trial court concluded that plaintiffs policy was reasonable. I agree with its conclusion.
The trial court made express findings of fact that the facilities at Marina Point are “designed for use by adults, not children, and pose dangers to children who are not accpmpanied by adults.” It further expressly found that plaintiff Marina Point’s “exclusion of children from *747the premises at issue herein is rationally related to the lack of facilities provided for children ...These findings were amply supported by the record. The evidence before the trial court established, in substance, that Marina Point was designed and constructed for the purpose of providing all-adult rental housing, and that as such its facilities were ill-adapted for use by children. There was unchallenged testimony that, among other things, neither of the two swimming pools of the facility has a shallow end; there are no playgrounds or any other facilities appropriate for recreational use by children; gang-planks leading from the facility directly to the adjoining ocean are not equipped with gates; and, in general, the use of existing facilities at Marina Point by children when playing results in substantial danger both to themselves and to adult tenants alike.
The majority attempts to discount the force of these findings by observing that Marina Point, prior to the 1974 decision to accept no further tenants with children, freely rented to families having children. It is suggested, in short, that the adaptability of the premises to use by. children is demonstrated by the fact that they have actually resided there. This proposition, its logical failings aside, must be considered in the light and context of the record which reflects that plaintiff became the owner of the complex in 1972, several years after it was built; that at that time, as a result of existing leases, there were children included among the tenants; and that in 1974, two years after acquiring the property and because of its experience during that period, plaintiff decided that no further leases to families with children would be entered into, but that families with children then in occupancy should be allowed to remain.
I do not agree with the majority’s suggestion that one who purchases property which is constructed and designed for all-adult rental occupancy is thereafter for all time precluded under the Unruh Act from putting that property to its intended use because a prior owner had chosen to do otherwise. Here, plaintiff purchased property which was subject to outstanding leases and a then current rental policy which had previously permitted occupancy inconsistent with the design for the complex.
Our sole inquiry, under Cox, is to determine whether the landlord has acted reasonably—i.e., whether in initiating and enforcing its new policy, it has done so by regulations which are reasonable in light of the circumstances and “rationally related to the services performed and fa*748cilities provided.” (Cox, supra, at p. 212.) The trial court’s conclusion that plaintiff’s action met this standard is fully supported by the court’s express findings of fact and substantial evidence in this record. (See Stevens v. Parke, Davis & Co. (1973) 9 Cal.3d 51, 63-64 [107 Cal.Rptr. 45, 507 P.2d 653, 94 A.L.R.3d 1059].) It has long been our rule that our review “begins and ends with the determination as to whether there is any substantial evidence contradicted or uncontradicted which will support the finding of fact.” (Primm v. Primm (1956) 46 Cal.2d 690, 693 [299 P.2d 231].)
Because the majority declines to reach defendants’ constitutional arguments, I, accordingly, do not discuss them here other than to observe that the equal protection and due process principles relied upon by defendants place no restrictions upon purely private action, but affect only state action, which is not involved here. (Garfinkle v. Superior Court (1978) 21 Cal.3d 268, 281-282 [146 Cal.Rptr. 208, 578 P.2d 925]; Kruger v. Wells Fargo Bank (1974) 11 Cal.3d 352, 366-367 [113 Cal.Rptr. 449, 521 P.2d 441, 65 A.L.R.3d 1266]; Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) 334 U.S. 1, 13 [92 L.Ed. 1161, 1180, 68 S.Ct. 836, 3 A.L.R.2d 441]; Civil Rights Cases (1883) 109 U.S. 3, 11-19 [27 L.Ed. 835, 839-842, 3 S.Ct. 18]; see also Gay Law Students Assn. v. Pacific Tel. & Tel. Co. (1979) 24 Cal.3d 458, 468, 493 [156 Cal.Rptr. 14, 595 P.2d 592].)
I fully share the majority’s concern with the current need in this state for moderate and low income housing for families with children. We should impose no restriction on the power of either state or local government, through the proper exercise of their police powers, to enact measures calculated to insure that all families with children are able to secure adequate and affordable housing. In the matter before us, however, the majority simply disagrees with the explicit fact findings of a trial court which listened to the witnesses, examined the evidence, and expressly found as a fact that the premises in question were planned and built for all-adult tenants and not for children. On the basis of these findings, there is nothing in the Unruh Act which prohibits limitations here imposed. It is not unreasonable that the rental policies of an apartment complex be tailored and fashioned to match its planned design and character. If the trial court had found as a fact that the premises were designed for general use a different legal conclusion would follow.
*749I would dismiss the appeal of plaintiff Marina Point from the order after judgment taxing costs, and would affirm the judgment.
Mosk, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied April 8, 1982. Mosk, J., and Richardson, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.