Price v. City of Stockton

390 F.3d 1105, 2004 WL 2784891
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided December 6, 2004·No. Nos. 02-16155, 02-16270·Published·Cited by 86 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

The City of Stockton and other defendants 1 (collectively the “City”) appeal in-terlocutorily the district court’s order granting a preliminary injunction in favor of Richard Price, other residents of low income hotels, and Metro Ministry, a nonprofit organization that helps the homeless in Stockton, California (collectively “Plaintiffs”). Plaintiffs brought an action alleging that the City violated its statutory duties under the Housing and Community Development Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Uniform Relocation Act, California’s Redevelopment Act, and California’s Relocation Assistance Act when the City began closing residential hotels and evicting the residents based on housing code violations.

The district court granted a preliminary injunction, finding that Plaintiffs had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim under the Housing and Community Development Act and that the balance of hardships tipped in their favor. The City appeals.

I. Background

Plaintiffs are six former tenants of three substandard Single Resident Occupancy hotels (“SRO Hotels”) in downtown Stockton, California, and one nonprofit organization that provides assistance to the City’s homeless, Stockton Metro Ministry. The six former tenants were displaced from their homes when the SRO Hotels that [1108] they lived in were closed by Stockton’s Community Health Action Team (“CHAT”).

CHAT is an interdepartmental code inspection team created by Stockton’s City Manager in June 2001. CHAT’s focus is on enforcing health, building, and safety regulations in the downtown area. The group is comprised of five city employees.

Since CHAT’s formation approximately 32 multi-family residential buildings in downtown Stockton have been inspected. The inspections resulted in the closure of nine properties, six of which were vacated on an emergency basis. Some of the inspected SRO Hotels were closed after CHAT issued emergency notices for reasons such as bat infestation, fire and safety violations, and dangerous carbon monoxide emissions. Others were closed after the building owners failed to correct violations of which they had been previously notified.

After the SRO Hotels were closed due to the City’s code enforcement activities, Plaintiffs filed an action against the City, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiffs also sought two writs of mandate, seeking relocation benefits and replacement housing.

Plaintiffs filed for a preliminary injunction on February 25, 2002. The district court granted the motion. In its order, the district court found that Plaintiffs had demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in showing that federal Community Development Block Grant (“Block Grant”) funds were used in the City’s downtown code enforcement efforts and that relocation obligations were triggered under the Housing and Community Development Act, 42 U.S.C. § 5304(d) (hereafter “Section 104(d)”). Concluding that the balance of hardships tipped in Plaintiffs’ favor, the court enjoined the City from vacating, demolishing, or converting SRO Hotels in the downtown area until it adopted and implemented an antidisplacement and relocation assistance plan consistent with Section 104(d). The injunction also required the city to provide relocation assistance and replacement housing to all persons displaced by the City’s ongoing emergency code enforcement activities as well as those previously displaced. The district court later modified its injunction to make clear that the City could vacate, but not convert, units or premises posing an immediate and grave danger to the health and safety of occupants or the public, to require that Plaintiffs’ counsel be given twenty-four hours’ notice of such evictions, and to order the parties to meet and confer over providing adequate notice to displaced persons of their right to relocation assistance.2 The City appeals, challenging the scope of the injunction, the district court’s factual findings regarding the City’s use of federal funds, and the court’s conclusion that code enforcement triggered City responsibilities under Section 104(d).

At oral argument, it became clear that the district court did not consider whether Section 104(d) creates either a private right of action or a right enforceable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The City did not raise this issue below or on appeal. Nonetheless, we requested supplemental briefing as to whether such a cause of action exists. Although this question is not one of jurisdiction, and therefore may be assumed without being decided, Lapidus v. Hecht, 232 F.3d 679, 681 n. 4 (9th Cir.2000), we shall consider it on the merits in light of the supplemental briefing provided by the parties.

[1109] II. Standard of Review

A district court’s order granting a preliminary injunction is subject to limited review. United States v. Peninsula Communications, Inc., 287 F.3d 832, 839 (9th Cir.2002). “The grant or denial of a preliminary injunction will be reversed only where the district court abused its discretion or based its decision on an erroneous legal standard or on clearly erroneous findings of fact.” Id. To obtain a preliminary injunction, Plaintiffs must show a likelihood of success on the merits and a possibility of irreparable injury, or that there are serious questions as to the merits and the balance of hardships tips in their favor. Conn. Gen. Life Ins. Co. v. Neto Images of Beverly Hills, 321 F.3d 878, 881 (9th Cir.2003). “We may affirm a district court’s judgment on any ground supported by the record, whether or not the decision of the district court relied on the same grounds or reasoning we adopt.” Atel Fin. Corp. v. Quaker Coal Co., 321 F.3d 924, 926 (9th Cir.2003).

III. Discussion

A. Whether Plaintiffs Have an Enforceable Right to Benefits Under Section 104 of the Housing and Community Development Act

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Price v. City of Stockton, 390 F.3d 1105, 2004 WL 2784891 (9th Cir. 2004).

390 F.3d 1105 (Price v. City of Stockton) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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