295 P. 14 | Cal. | 1930
This is an action to enjoin the enforcement of a zoning ordinance of the City of Los Angeles. The said ordinance was enacted independently of the general zoning *306 plan of the city, and its restrictive provisions are directed toward one type of business. It provides that outside of certain designated districts, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation "to erect, establish, operate, maintain or conduct any hospital, asylum, sanitarium, home, retreat or other place for the care or treatment of insane persons, persons of unsound mind, or persons affected by or suffering from mental or nervous diseases". Penalties of fine and imprisonment are specified for its violation.
In March, 1927, the City of Los Angeles annexed the territory known as the Mar Vista District. At that time, there were already in operation in this district four sanitariums for the treatment of nervous diseases: the Casa Del Mar Sanitarium, the Marshall Manor Sanitarium, the St. Erne Sanitarium, and the Wittman Home for Children. These institutions take as patients only persons suffering from the milder forms of mental disorder. No insane persons are admitted. Each institution has been established by a substantial investment in land, buildings and equipment.
The above-mentioned zoning ordinance, adopted on August 11, 1927, some months after the annexation of the Mar Vista District, excluded that territory from the area in which the establishment and maintenance of such sanitariums was permitted. When the ordinance went into effect, plaintiffs, as the owners of the institutions, sought to enjoin its enforcement. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, in each of the actions, denied the relief prayed for, and appeals were then taken. Because their grounds are practically identical, the four appeals were, by stipulation, consolidated, and will be considered together in this opinion.
A preliminary question which may readily be disposed of relates to the availability of the equitable remedy. [1] It is settled that where a penal statute causes irreparable damage to property rights, the injured party may attack its constitutionality by an action to enjoin its enforcement. (San Diego Tuberculosis Assn.
v. East San Diego,
Viewing the ordinance as part of a general zoning plan, and disregarding for the moment the question of its applicability to plaintiffs, there can be no doubt of its validity. [2] That zoning ordinances, when reasonable in object and not arbitrary in operation, constitute a justifiable exercise of police power, is now well established; and it is equally well established that the power extends to the regulation of uses of property which do not actually amount to nuisances. As Mr. Justice Lennon said inMiller v. Board of Public Works,
[3] The evidence shows and the lower court found that the restricted districts were mainly residential in character. This is sufficient to justify the exclusion of businesses such as that carried on by plaintiffs. The decisions uphold the validity of ordinances excluding from residential districts property uses much less incongruous than these, as, for example, flats, stores and business buildings. (See State v. Houghton,
[5] An appellate court should not permit itself to be drawn into a minute examination of alleged discriminatory operation of such ordinances if, broadly considered, a reasonable basis of classification exists. (Zahn v. Board of Public Works, supra; Bettman, Constitutionality of Zoning, 37 Harv. L. Rev. 834, 850.) Bearing in mind the object of the ordinance and the findings of the court, we are satisfied that no unconstitutional discrimination has been made.
[6] We have thus arrived at this conclusion: The ordinance in question, in so far as it prohibits the establishment of hospitals for the treatment of nervous diseases in certain districts in the City of Los Angeles, and permits their establishment in other specified districts, is valid. The businesses so restricted are proper subjects of such regulation, and hence the ordinance does not result in a denial of due process. The classification of districts is reasonable and not arbitrary and therefore there is no denial of equal protection of the laws. This much is clear, we feel, with respect to theestablishment of new businesses of this character in the prohibited districts. But does the same result necessarily follow with regard to existing businesses in these districts? [7] In other words, does the broad view of the police *310 power which justifies the taking away of the right to engage insuch businesses in certain territory, also justify thedestruction of existing businesses? We do not think that it does.
We have already emphasized the fact that courts, in their consideration of zoning legislation, have not deemed themselves bound by their prior decisions on the legislative regulation or prohibition of nuisances. They have recognized that the right to use private property may be restricted by an ordinance which follows a reasonable plan, even though the use is neither a nuisance per se, nor a menace to health, safety or morals in the particular district from which it is excluded. It would seem, therefore, at first glance, that the zoning decisions reach the conclusion that businesses may be prohibited in the sense of being excluded from specified districts, although they do not come within any reasonable view of what constitutes a nuisance. An examination of those decisions, however, reveals the fact that nearly all of them deal with the attempt to establish businesses in the prohibited areas. They decide nothing more than this: The right to engage in a lawful and not dangerous business in a certain area may be taken away in pursuance of a reasonable zoning scheme. They do not decide that an established and not dangerous business, operating in a lawful manner in a certain territory, may be eradicated in pursuance of a reasonable zoning scheme. That problem, which is the important problem of this case, has, so far as we are aware, only been squarely presented to appellate courts in a few instances. The reason for the paucity of decisions is illuminating: Zoning laws have almost invariably been prospective in nature. Indeed, in some states, including Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, the enabling statutes which give the zoning power to municipalities expressly provide that no retroactive ordinances shall be passed. (See Baker, Legal Aspects of Zoning, p. 158, note 220.)
As a matter of practice, also, those who have drafted ordinances have usually proceeded with due regard for valuable, vested property interests, and have permitted existing, nonconforming uses to remain. They are very generally agreed that the destruction of an existing nonconforming use would be a dangerous innovation of doubtful constitutionality, *311 and that a retroactive provision might jeopardize the entire ordinance. "Zoning . . . holds that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that it is fairer to all concerned to prevent the establishment in residence districts of objectionable businesses than to drive them out once they were established. . . . Zoning looks to the future, not the past, and it is customary to allow buildings and businesses already in the district to remain, although of a class which cannot be established. If such a business constitutes a nuisance, it can still be removed under the police power, but the zoning acts in themselves do not customarily interfere with existing conditions." (Chamberlain and Pierson, Zoning Laws and Ordinances, 10 Am. Bar Assn. J. 185.) "Retroactive operation of the provisions of the ordinance is generally avoided. . . ." (Bettman, Constitutionality of Zoning, 37 Harv. L. Rev. 834, 853.) "Retroactive zoning is not to be recommended. . . ." (Young, City Planning and Restrictions on the Use of Property, 9 Minn. L. Rev. 593, 628.) "The purpose of zoning, which is said to be the crystallization of present conditions and the constructive control of future development, does not require that existing uses be changed. Hence it has been generally assumed that any attempt to make zoning ordinances retroactive would meet with the opposition of the courts and might result in their declaring the ordinance as a whole unconstitutional." (Retroactive Zoning Ordinances, 39 Yale L.J. 735, 737.) "Nonconforming uses may be required to be removed, but the majority of the cases seem to indicate that if this procedure is attempted the ordinance will be declared unconstitutional because unreasonable." (Byrne, The Constitutionality of a General Zoning Ordinance, 11 Marquette L. Rev. 189, 214.) (See, also, Baker, supra, p. 145.)
These same views have been expressed in a number of decisions. In Pelham View Apartments, Inc., v. Switzer, 130 Misc. Rep. 545 [224 N.Y. Supp. 56], a building permit had been issued for the erection of an apartment house, and the petitioner had borrowed money, bought property, prepared plans, and begun construction, in reliance upon the permit. Thereafter, a new zoning law was enacted, under which such a permit could not be granted, and an attempt was made to revoke it. The court said: "While it is unfortunate *312 that the erection of this apartment house may be distasteful to people living in the neighborhood, and while perhaps it is unfortunate that their property should be thus affected, yet the protection of such rights must be legally done, and the public officials representing the people cannot legally be permitted to change the zoning law and cancel a permit previously issued under the original zoning act, where an innocent purchaser of real estate has in good faith acted upon such official action of the city, and has thereby acquired vested rights under his permit. . . . It would be nothing short of confiscation, and a complete disregard of constitutional rights, if a municipality could revoke a building permit issued under the conditions as presented in this case." (See, also, People v. Stanton, 125 Misc. Rep. 215 [211 N.Y. Supp. 438].)
In Atkinson v. Piper,
In holding another statute not to be retroactive, the New Jersey court said in Frank J. Durkin Lumber Co. v.Fitzsimmons, (N.J. Err. App.)
In Adams v. Kalamazoo Ice Fuel Co.,
In response to the charge that exemption of existing nonconforming uses would be discriminatory, the courts have very generally held the exemption to be valid and necessary. (Baker,supra, p. 144.) As the court said in City of Aurora v.Burns,
It therefore appears that the instant case involves a situation materially different from that presented in the usual zoning case. The exercise of power in this instance is, on the whole, far more drastic than in those in which a mere right to engage in a particular business is restricted. We are asked to uphold a municipal ordinance which destroys valuable businesses, built up over a period of years. If we do so on the ground that this is a proper exercise of the police power in the enactment of zoning legislation, then it follows that the same thing may be done to apartment houses, flats, or stores. The establishment of many lawful and not dangerous businesses in a city would then become an extremely hazardous undertaking. At any time, in pursuance of a reasonable plan for its future development, the city could prohibit the continuance of the businesses, and make property valueless which was previously constructed and devoted to a useful purpose. It may well be that in the course of years one of the outlying permitted districts in the present scheme will become residential in character, and will, by another ordinance, be placed in the prohibited area. If the plaintiffs, at great expense, reestablish themselves in that district, they might be pursued and again eradicated. All this is to be justified under the police power as a proper taking of private property for public use, without compensation. The approval of such a doctrine would be a blow to rights in private property such as this court has never before witnessed. Only a paramount and compelling public necessity could sanction so extraordinary an interference with useful business.
What is the public necessity here? We have considered the ordinance solely as modern zoning legislation, for such is undoubtedly its character. There is, it is true, testimony in the record to show that the district was in some respects a less agreeable residential section than it would be if the businesses of plaintiffs were removed. Neighbors complained that the presence of the sanitariums depreciated the value of their own property. There is similar testimony as to occasional noises made by unruly patients, and of several patients having escaped; although in this connection the trial court found that "none of the inmates of any of said four sanitariums *315 . . . has ever injured in any manner whatsoever any of the inhabitants of said Mar Vista District or elsewhere, nor has any of said inmates ever attacked or attempted to do bodily injury unto any of said inhabitants".
From the evidence the court found that the conduct and operation of plaintiffs' businesses will tend to and does "impair and endanger the health, safety, morals, convenience, comfort and welfare of the public, and will prevent the said district from obtaining its proper growth and from fully developing into the residential district to which it is devoted". Another finding is that "it is not true that said sanitarium . . . will not create, and is not a nuisance". Assuming that the above statements are intended as a finding that the sanitariums of plaintiffs are nuisances as now conducted, it hardly seems supported by the record. For a discussion of similar evidence, see Jardine v.Pasadena,
[8] As so considered, we are satisfied that it cannot find support in the legislative power to prohibit nuisances. [9] A properly conducted sanitarium for the care and treatment of persons affected with "mental or nervous diseases" cannot, we feel, be held to constitute a nuisance. Mr. Justice Olney said inSan Diego Tuberculosis Assn. v. East San Diego,
We repeat, therefore, that the ordinance involved herein is to be supported upon principles of zoning and not as a prohibition directed against actual nuisances. With this conclusion as a basis, it becomes necessary to determine whether that part of the ordinance which prohibits the further operation or maintenance of plaintiffs' businesses is a reasonable means by which the zoning power may be exercised. And here the distinction between the power to prohibit nuisances and the power to zone is exceedingly important. The power over nuisances is more circumscribed in its objects; but once an undoubted menace to public health, safety, or morals is shown, the method of protection may be drastic. Private businesses may be wholly prohibited, where their danger is sufficiently great; and other businesses, no matter how well established and how great the resulting loss, may be excluded from certain districts where, by reason of the circumstances, their maintenance has become a public nuisance in those districts. In these cases, the public welfare demands even the destruction of existing property interests. Examples of decisions of this type are Ex parte Quong Wo,
Zoning is not so limited in its purposes. It may take into consideration factors which bear no relation to the public health, safety or morals, but which come within the meaning of the broader term "general welfare". It deals with many uses of property which are in no way harmful. If its objects are so much broader than those of nuisance regulation; if its invasion of private property interests is more extensive; and if the public necessity to justify its exercise need not be so pressing, then does it not follow that its means of regulation must be more reasonable and less destructive of established interests? Must we say that the property of some of the residents of a district can be taken from them, without compensation, in order to make more attractive and pleasant the lives of other residents? "This background of nuisance law in the development of zoning occasionally leads to erroneous results. Property regulation by means of zoning is not restricted to what is disorderly or offensive . . . in attempting to apply to all types of zoning ordinances the summary methods of prevention and suppression which are employed in the case of nuisances, municipalities obviously fail to take into account the fact that zoning not only includes but also supplements nuisance regulation. A restriction imposed to prohibit an offensive use is not a taking of property for which compensation must be made and in the abatement of nuisances retroactive measures are valid. Granting that a zoning ordinance may operate retroactively where there is clearly an element of nuisance, it does not follow that a similar disposition may be made of every type of non-conforming use dealt with in zoning." (39 Yale L.J. 738.) "No one gainsays that a municipal government within its police powers has the right to prescribe rules regulating the character of buildings to be erected and the material to be used within certain prescribed boundaries . . . But such ordinances must . . . relate to the future. Of course, that does not prevent cities from moving to abate nuisances whenever occurring." (Brown v. Grant, (Tex. Civ. App.)
Seemingly in opposition to these widely held views is the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court of Louisiana, with respect to an ordinance of the city of New Orleans which prohibited the establishment or maintenance of any business within a specified district, and provided that all businesses then *318
in operation in the district should be liquidated in one year. InState v. McDonald,
These decisions are, we think, distinguishable from the instant case; but even if they were not distinguishable, we should not be disposed to follow them, for they exhibit, in our opinion, a confusion between the objects of zoning and nuisance regulation. (See 39 Yale L.J. 738.)
A more drastic decision, perhaps, is Village of Euclid v.Ambler Realty Co.,
We do not mean to hold that those engaged in the zoning of cities must always be faced with the impossibility of eradicating the nonconforming uses. In some jurisdictions this problem has been dealt with by provisions against alteration or enlargement of existing structures, or rebuilding after their destruction. (See State v. Hillman,
"Government could hardly go on if to some extent values incident to property could not be diminished without paying for every such change in the general law. As long recognized, some values are enjoyed under an implied limitation and must yield to the police power. But obviously the implied limitation must have its limits, or the contract and due process clauses are gone. One fact for consideration in determining such limits is the extent of the diminution. When it reaches a certain magnitude, in most, if not all cases, there must be an exercise of eminent domain and compensation to sustain the act. So the question depends upon the particular facts. The greatest weight is given to the judgment of the legislature, but it always is open to interested parties to contend that the legislature has gone beyond its constitutional power."
Further on, the learned justice remarks: "The general rule at least is, that while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulation goes too far it will be recognized as a taking. . . . In general, it is not plain that a man's misfortunes or necessities will justify his shifting the damages to his neighbor's shoulders. . . . We are in danger of forgetting that a strong public desire to improve the public condition is not enough to warrant achieving the desire by a shorter cut than the constitutional way of paying for the change."
The principles set forth in the Pennsylvania Coal Company case were approved in Piper v. Ekern,
Even where the destruction of private property is warranted by vital public necessity, it is sometimes the legislative practice to compensate the injured owner. Such, for example, was the case with our legislation directed toward the eradication of bovine tuberculosis by the destruction of diseased cattle. (SeePatrick v. Riley,
[10] Our conclusion is that where, as here, a retroactive ordinance causes substantial injury and the prohibited business is not a nuisance, the ordinance is to that extent an unreasonable and unjustifiable exercise of police power. Whether under our present law there exists the power to eliminate the nonconforming use by payment of compensation for the loss suffered, is a question not presented by this case, and one which we therefore do not attempt to determine.
It follows that the present ordinance is valid in so far as it prohibits the further establishment of businesses of this type in the restricted districts; and is invalid in its application to these plaintiffs.
The judgment is therefore reversed.
Richards, J., Seawell, J., Curtis, J., Preston, J., and Waste, C.J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.
Seawell, J., Shenk, J., and Curtis, J., dissented. *322