Deja Vu, Inc. v. Spokane County

46 F. Supp. 2d 1083, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21920, 1998 WL 1045989
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Washington
DecidedNovember 18, 1998
DocketCS-98-040-FVS
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 46 F. Supp. 2d 1083 (Deja Vu, Inc. v. Spokane County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deja Vu, Inc. v. Spokane County, 46 F. Supp. 2d 1083, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21920, 1998 WL 1045989 (E.D. Wash. 1998).

Opinion

ORDER

VAN SICKLE, District Judge.

BEFORE THE COURT .is plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment, defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment, and plaintiffs motion to strike. Plaintiff is represented by Jack R. Burns; defendant by Patty Connolly Walker. These matters were considered without oral argument. This Order will memorialize the Court’s rulings.

Background

On November 4, 1997, Spokane County enacted Ordinance No. 97-1052 regulating establishments offering nude and semi-nude dancing. This worked wholesale operational changes by imposing license requirements, closure hours, minimum lighting criteria and other restrictions. The provision generating the most heat is the “four foot rule” which prohibits dancers and patrons from coming within that distance of one another. One might think that dancing would fall within the realm of the visual arts, but as the trade is practiced, the tactile arts are the real drawing card. Hence, the County’s perceived need to distance the viewers from the viewed. For an overview of the considerations which lay behind such enactments, see Kev, Inc. v. Kitsap County, 793 F.2d 1053 (9th Cir.1986). Suffice it to say that the County was concerned with illegal sexual conduct occurring on the premises and the secondary effects of criminal activity in the surrounding area including prostitution and drugs.

This action followed on February 9, 1998 and challenges the enactment as a whole and 16 discrete provisions. Plaintiff moves for partial summary judgment on the following issues: (1) dancers should not be required to disclose their home addresses and phone numbers on licensing applications for personal security reasons; (2) pursuant to the Privacy Act, dancers need not disclose their social security numbers; (3) direct payment by customers to stage dancers should not be prohibited; (4) the closure hours do not serve a legitimate purpose; and (5) the ordinance is over-broad in that it may be read to prohibit nonobscene dancing. Defendant moves for full summary judgment both on the merits and on grounds of collateral estoppel.

Summary

With one exception and one clarification, the ordinance is valid. The single exception is that the County has failed to establish a “substantial governmental interest” in licensing “peep show” devices as required by Ninth Circuit case law. Specifically, the County has failed to demonstrate a relationship between license requirements and the law enforcement costs associated with regulating the devices. The County might yet make that showing, but trial on the merits will be required' to resolve the issue. The clarification is that the ordinance may not regulate the content of expression which is not obscene. However, the ordinance may regulate conduct that is obscene. The “dancing” regu *1085 lated by the ordinance in this case is conduct.

Analysis

I. County’s motion for summary judgment

(A) Collateral estoppel: The record is impressive for its bulk and the issues are numerous and complex, but this is actually a simple case. It has been litigated, 1 and relitigated, 2 and relitigated 3 and relit-igated. 4 For the most part, collateral es-toppel bars this attempt to relitigate yet again. Judges Rothstein and Zilly of the Western District of Washington have already applied collateral estoppel; Judge Zilly based on' the Bellevue litigation and Judge Rothstein based on both the Belle-vue and Federal Way litigation. Federal Way, supra, at 3-6 (Ct.Rec.19, Ex. G); Everett, supra, at 4-9 (Ct.Rec.19, Ex. L). The King County Superior Court also applied collateral estoppel to all claims raised save for the “inevitable effects” issue. (Ct.Rec.19, Ex. J). Judge Rothstein pretty well summed it up in Everett, supra. “The repetitive litigation brought by Deja Yu only clogs the courts and wastes judicial time and resources.” (Ct.Rec. 19, Ex., L, page 9).

State rules on issue preclusion govern when applying state decisions. Haphey v. Linn County, 953 F.2d 549, 550 (9th Cir.1992) (en banc). Federal, rules govern when applying federal decisions. Trevino v. Gates, 99 F.3d 911, 923 (9th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1117, 117 S.Ct. 1249, 137 L.Ed.2d 330 (1997). The Washington and federal rules differ in several respects,, but parallel - one another. The following elements must be satisfied to apply collateral estoppel under Washington law: , '

(1) the issue presented must be identical;’ (2) there must be a final judgment on the merits; (3) the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted must have been a party to the former adjudication, or in privity with a party; and (4) no injustice will result by applying collateral estoppel.

Garcia v. Wilson, 63 Wash.App. 516, 518, 820 P.2d 964 (1991); accord, Nielson v. Spanaway Gen. Med. Clinic, 135 Wash.2d 255, 263, 956 P.2d 312 (1998).

Under the federal standard, to foreclose relitigation of an issue under collateral estoppel, three elements must be met: (1) 'the issue at stake must be identical to the one alleged in the prior litigation; (2) the issue must have been actually litigated [by the party against whom preclusion is asserted] in the prior litigation; and (3) the determination of the issue in the prior litigation must have been a critical and necessary part of the judgment in the earlier action.

Town of North Bonneville v. Callaway, 10 F.3d 1505, 1508 (9th Cir.1993), quoting Clark v. Bear Stearns & Co., 966 F.2d 1318, 1320 (9th Cir.1992).

The distinguishing features between these two tests could yield differing results depending on the facts, but are not likely to here. The identity prong is the same. The “final judgment on the merits” prong necessarily assumes the issue was *1086 “actually litigated.” Nielson, supra, 135 Wash.2d at 262, 956 P.2d 312 (“actually litigated by the parties and decided by a competent tribunal”); Marriage of Murphy, 90 Wash.App. 488, 498, 952 P.2d 624 (1998) (“actually, litigated and necessarily determined in the prior action”). While the test as articulated by Callaway, supra, does not refer to privity, “party” also means those in privity. United States v. ITT Rayonier, Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
46 F. Supp. 2d 1083, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21920, 1998 WL 1045989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deja-vu-inc-v-spokane-county-waed-1998.