City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge v. Myers

145 So. 3d 320, 2014 WL 1800064
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 7, 2014
DocketNos. 2013-CA-2011, 2013-CD-2036
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 145 So. 3d 320 (City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge v. Myers, 145 So. 3d 320, 2014 WL 1800064 (La. 2014).

Opinions

HUGHES, J.

| tThis case presents a direct appeal, pursuant to LSA-Const. art. V, § 5(D), from a district court judgment ruling that the definition of “family,” for purposes of a local zoning ordinance restricting permissible occupancy of homes in a single-family residential zone, is unconstitutional and unenforceable; and a consolidated application for supervisory review, which challenges the district court’s denial of a motion for suspensive appeal of that judgment. Upon review we conclude the district court erred in its rulings; therefore, we reverse the declaration of unconstitutionality and the denial of a suspensive appeal, and remand for further proceedings.

| .FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge (“City-Parish”) filed suit in the district court on March 20, 2012 seeking injunctive relief against the defendant, Stephen C. Myers, to compel him to cease his alleged violation of the City-Parish’s Unified Development Code (the “UDC”), Title 7, Chapter 8, Section 8.201, Appendix H, entitled “Permissible Uses.” The City-Parish alleged that more than two unrelated persons were residing in a home owned by the defendant, located at 1977 Cherry-dale Avenue in Baton Rouge, in an area zoned “Al” and restricted to “single-family dwellings.”

The defendant answered the petition, admitting that he is the owner, but denying that he occupied the premises, as he had leased the property to other occupants. The defendant sought dismissal of the action for injunctive relief and asserted, both as an affirmative defense and as the basis for his reconventional demand for declaratory judgment, that the UDC zoning law’s restrictive definition of “family” was unconstitutional on its face and as applied, violating his state and federal constitutional rights of: freedom of association, by prohibiting individuals from residing together on his property unless they fall within certain classifications; freedom from intrusion by the government into his private life, by limiting the classes of people with whom he can conduct business and by imposing on him a duty to inquire into the familial status of prospective tenants contrary to the dictates of the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”), 42 U.S.C.A. § 3601 et seq.; freedom from deprivation of property without due process of law, denying him economically viable use of his property by limiting the number and categories of persons who may reside on his property and by failing to narrowly tailor the zoning ordinance to further a compelling government interest; and equal protection, contending the ordinance “imposes greater limitations on owners who choose to rent their homes ... than it does on owners who choose not to rent their | .homes” and also by prohibiting “foster children and non-adopted stepchildren without a living biological parent from being able [to] reside with their respective foster parents and stepparents ... while allowing an unlimited number of very dis[326]*326tant relatives via blood, marriage or adoption to reside together.” The defendant also urged, along with defenses and/or matters not relevant hereto, that the zoning law’s definition of “family” should be declared void for vagueness because its prohibitions are not clearly defined and it does not contain an unequivocal statement of law.

Following a bench trial, the district court rendered judgment for the defendant, dismissing the City-Parish’s demand for injunctive relief and, on the defendant’s request for declaratory judgment, ruled that “the definition of ‘famil/ contained in and applied to the [UDC] ... is hereby declared unconstitutional, and thus, unenforceable.” Upon request by this court, the district court issued a per curiam, containing the following reasons for judgment:

At the hearing on the merits, the testimony by the tenants shows that they are not conclusively related by blood, marriage, or adoption. In fact, the tenants’ testimony supports a finding that they are an interdependent Active fami-lia[l] unit living together and occupying a single housekeeping unit with single culinary facilities. More particularly, that they are more than two (2) persons living together by joint agreement and occupying a single housekeeping unit with single culinary facilities on a nonprofit, cost-sharing basis, none of which comports with the definition of “family” as outlined in the Unified Development Code Title 7, Chapter 2. After reviewing the statutes, briefs, evidence and argument of counsel, the Court finds that there is no rational basis for the definition of “family” found in the Unified Development Code that furthers a State objective. Being as common as they are today, treating creative kinship networks and families such as same sex relationships, non-marital child births, cohabitations, foster homes, and the like with disparate treatment from the traditional nuclear family appears out of touch with society’s reality and denies several non-traditional groups the right to cohabitate as a family unit. This restrictive definition of “family” is in direct conflict with the 14th Amendment of the [United States] Constitution by denying the aforementioned groups equal protection of the laws by limiting the number of nontraditional familial members residing in a single family dwelling located in an A-l, A-2, or Rural zoning district, while affording greater liberties to traditional family units by allowing an unlimited number of those familial members to reside in the same 14zoning district. No demonstrable State objective has been demonstrated by the evidence presented, thus, it is without question that it is the constitutional aim to deny the legislature the power to enact a statute that so narrowly defines “family” that it excludes several significant and ever growing familial segments of our society. Therefore, the defendant has proven that the Unified Development Code’s definition of “family” is unconstitutionally vague.

The City-Parish appealed the district court judgment, contending the district court erred: (1) in ruling that the definition of “family” contained in the City-Parish zoning law is unconstitutionally vague because it does not include as “family” “creative kinship networks and families such as same sex relationships, non-marital child births, cohabitations, foster homes, and the like”; (2) in ruling that the ordinance violates the defendant’s equal protection rights and the equal protection rights of “Active” family groups that are not parties to this litigation; (3) by refusing to apply the presumption of validity of legislation and by ruling that the definition was not rationally related to a legitimate [327]*327governmental purpose; and (4) by finding that the City-Parish failed to prove that the defendant was in violation of the ordinance when he leased the residence to four unrelated people. The City-Parish also filed a writ application, which was granted for review, asserting the district court erred in “arbitrarily” refusing to allow it to suspensively appeal the court’s judgment. See City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge v. Myers, 2013-2036 (La.1/10/14).

LAW AND ANALYSIS

Constitutionality of City-Parish “Single Family" Zoning District

Questions of law, including issues of constitutionality, are reviewed de novo. See State in Interest of J.M., 2013-1717 (La.1/28/14), 144 So.3d 853, 859, 2014 WL 340999; City of Bossier City v. Vernon, 2012-0078 (La.10/16/12); 100 So.3d 301, 303; City of New Orleans v. Louisiana Assessors’ Retirement and Relief Fund, 2005-2548 (La.10/1/07), 986 So.2d 1,12.

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145 So. 3d 320, 2014 WL 1800064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-baton-rougeparish-of-east-baton-rouge-v-myers-la-2014.