Cmty. Redevelopment Agency of L.A. v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty.

248 Cal. App. 2d 164, 56 Cal. Rptr. 201, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1617
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 27, 1967
DocketCiv. 31089
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 248 Cal. App. 2d 164 (Cmty. Redevelopment Agency of L.A. v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cmty. Redevelopment Agency of L.A. v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty., 248 Cal. App. 2d 164, 56 Cal. Rptr. 201, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1617 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

McCOY, J. pro tem. *

An action is now pending in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County entitled Bula Maynard, et ah, v. The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, California, and the City of Los Angeles, number 881693. Plaintiffs therein seek a judgment that the Redevelopment Plan for the Hoover Redevelopment Project and the ordinance adopting that plan “be declared unconstitutional and unenforceable.” On August 25, 1966, the court denied the motion of defendants to dismiss the action pursuant to section 863, Code of Civil Procedure, 1 on condition that the plaintiffs complete publication of the summons before September 26. On August 31, 1966, a commissioner of the court amended the complaint by adding “all persons interested” in the matter of the validation of the redevelopment plan which is the subject of the action as parties defendant, and made an ex parte order “correcting” the summons previously issued and directing that the summons as “corrected” be published in a certain newspaper. The summons as “corrected” required all interested persons to appear and answer the complaint on or before October 10, 1966. A declaration of publication of the summons as “corrected” was filed September 15,1966.

The matter is now before us on the petition of the defendants originally named in the complaint for a writ of prohibition ordering the respondent court to desist from any further proceedings in the action, and ordering that the date of October 10,1966, specified in the summons as published as the time in which all interested parties must appear and answer, be set aside.

The Facts

On January 27, 1966, the City Council of the City of Los Angeles adopted ordinance number 131730 “approving and adopting” the Redevelopment Plan for the Hoover Redevelopment Project in the City of Los Angeles.

On March 28, 1966, Bula Maynard and others, alleging that they are taxpayers and owners of various parcels of real property included in the Hoover Redevelopment Project, filed a verified complaint against the agency and the City of Los *168 Angeles, seeking a judgment that the redevelopment plan and the ordinance adopted January 27, 1966, be declared unconstitutional and unenforceable 2 When the complaint was filed a summons was issued by the clerk in the form customarily issued in civil actions as prescribed by section 407 directed only to “Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angency [sic] of the City of Los Angeles, California, and The City of Los Angeles,” the only defendants named in the complaint. This summons was returned with proof of service on those defendants on March 30,1966. Their answer was filed on April 20.

Before any other proceedings were had in the action, the defendants noticed their motion for an order dismissing the action under section 863 upon the ground that plaintiffs “failed to complete the publication and notice in accordance with Sections 861, 861.1, 862, and 863 of the Code of Civil Procedure and file proof thereof within 60 days from the filing of his Complaint.” On August 25 the court denied the motion on certain conditions on which we shall comment later in this opinion.

The Mandate of the Statute

Petitioners contend that the trial court has no jurisdiction to take any further proceedings in the action before it and should have granted their motion to dismiss. Their argument is that the statutory procedures with respect to such actions were not followed and that the statute imposes a duty on the court to dismiss the action in the absence of any showing of good cause by plaintiffs for their failure to follow the required procedures. More specifically, petitioners complain that plaintiffs failed to have proper summons issued and *169 failed to commence and complete proper publication of summons and file proof thereof within 60 days from the filing of their complaint and did not make a sufficient showing of good cause for their failure to do so.

Actions to determine the validity of the acts of public agencies are governed by the provisions of sections 860 to 870. Sections 860 to 869 were originally adopted in 1961 on the recommendation of the Judicial Council in order to provide a simple, uniform procedure in such cases. (18th Biennial Report, Judicial Council of Cal., p. 114.) In 1963 the Legislature enacted sections 33500 through 33503, Health and Safety Code, making the provisions of sections 860 to 869 applicable to actions to determine the validity of community redevelopment plans. (Stats. 1963, ch. 1812, p. 3702.) Thus, section 33501 expressly provides in part: “An action may be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure to determine the validity of bonds and the redevelopment plan to be financed or refinanced, in whole or in part by the bonds, or to determine the validity of a redevelopment plan not financed by bonds, ...” The complaint in this present action was filed in March 1966 long after the effective date of these sections of the Health and Safety Code.

Under section 860 a public agency is authorized to bring an action “in the nature of a proceeding in rem” to determine the validity of its action. Section 861 provides that in such an action “Jurisdiction of all interested parties may be had by publication of summons pursuant to Section 6063 of the Government Code in a newspaper of general circulation designated by the court, ...” Section 861.1 as amended in 1965 reads: “The summons shall be directed to ‘all persons interested in the matter of [specifying said matter],’ shall contain a notice to all persons interested in said matter to appear and answer the complaint not later than the date specified in the summons, which date shall be 10 or more days after the completion of publication of said summons. Except as otherwise specified in this section such summons shall be in the form prescribed in Section 407 of this code.” Section 862 reads: “Jurisdiction shall be complete after the date specified in the summons. Any party interested may, not later than the date specified in the summons, appear and contest the legality or validity of the matter sought to be determined. ’'

Section 863, as enacted in 1961, provides that if no proceed *170 ings have been brought by the public agency pursuant to section 860, “any interested person may bring an action within the time and in the court specified by Section 860 of this chapter to determine the validity of such matter. The public agency shall be a defendant ...” This section was amended in 1963 to provide further that “In any such action the summons shall be in the form prescribed in Section 861.1 of this chapter except that in addition to being directed to " all persons interested in the matter of [specifying said matter],’ it shall also be directed to said public agency.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Diaz v. Grill Concepts Services, Inc.
California Court of Appeal, 2018
Diaz v. Grill Concepts Servs., Inc.
233 Cal. Rptr. 3d 524 (California Court of Appeals, 5th District, 2018)
Community Youth Athletic Center v. City of National City
170 Cal. App. 4th 416 (California Court of Appeal, 2009)
Bonander v. Town of Tiburon
55 Cal. Rptr. 3d 184 (California Court of Appeal, 2007)
Katz v. Campbell Union High School District
50 Cal. Rptr. 3d 839 (California Court of Appeal, 2006)
County of Riverside v. Superior Court of Riverside Cty.
54 Cal. App. 4th 443 (California Court of Appeal, 1997)
Bronco Wine Co. v. Frank A. Logoluso Farms
214 Cal. App. 3d 699 (California Court of Appeal, 1989)
McCormick v. Board of Supervisors
198 Cal. App. 3d 352 (California Court of Appeal, 1988)
Hills for Everyone v. Local Agency Formation Commission of Orange County
105 Cal. App. 3d 461 (California Court of Appeal, 1980)
Green v. Community Redevelopment Agency
96 Cal. App. 3d 491 (California Court of Appeal, 1979)
Card v. Community Redevelopment Agency of South Pasadena
61 Cal. App. 3d 570 (California Court of Appeal, 1976)
Plunkett v. City of Lakewood
44 Cal. App. 3d 344 (California Court of Appeal, 1975)
Stamps v. Superior Court
14 Cal. App. 3d 108 (California Court of Appeal, 1971)
Arnold v. Newhall County Water District
11 Cal. App. 3d 794 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)
City of Ontario v. Superior Court
466 P.2d 693 (California Supreme Court, 1970)
Fazzi v. Peters
440 P.2d 242 (California Supreme Court, 1968)
Old Town Dev. Corp. v. Urban Renewal Agency of Monterey
249 Cal. App. 2d 313 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
248 Cal. App. 2d 164, 56 Cal. Rptr. 201, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cmty-redevelopment-agency-of-la-v-superior-court-of-la-cty-calctapp-1967.