Sanders v. Erreca

377 F.2d 960
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 25, 1967
DocketNo. 21153
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 377 F.2d 960 (Sanders v. Erreca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanders v. Erreca, 377 F.2d 960 (9th Cir. 1967).

Opinion

JERTBERG, Circuit Judge:

Appellants (plaintiffs in the District Court) appeal from an order of the District Court dismissing without leave to amend their amended complaint and action wherein they seek to recover from appellees (defendants in the District Court) damages under the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 1983).

The original complaint was filed on January 10, 1966, and an amended complaint was filed on February 15, 1966.

The dismissal of the action on March 14, 1966, with prejudice, following a hearing on appellees’ motion to dismiss on February 28, 1966, was made on the grounds:

1. That the acts alleged in the amended complaint do not constitute a taking or damaging of property within the protection afforded by the United States Constitution; and

2. That the appellees, who are alleged to be members of the California Highway Commission, were acting as members of said Commission exercising a discretionary function and that their action is, therefore, immune from civil liability.

On March 24, 1966, appellants moved the District Court for a new trial pursuant to Rule 59, or in the alternative under Rule 60(b) for an order vacating the order of dismissal of appellants’ action and permitting appellants to file a second amended complaint based upon newly discovered evidence which, by due diligence, could not have been discovered prior to the court’s ruling.

Following hearing on appellants’ motion on April 18, 1966, the motion was denied on April 21, 1966, on the grounds that:

1. The new facts failed to warrant the filing of an amended complaint; and

2. The failure of appellants to discover the new evidence was due to appellants’ lack of diligence.

The amended complaint may be summarized as follows:

That the appellants are the owners of a certain parcel of land described as Lots 1 and 2, of Tract No. 22236, in the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, as shown on map recorded in Book 738, pages 24 and 25 of Maps, in the office of the County Recorder of Los Angeles County, which has an area of approximately 4.78 acres;

That appellants commenced a project whereby Lot 2 of the above described property would be transformed from its present older shopping center use into a larger, modern shopping center, and to that end appellants have subdivided, obtained the necessary bonds and permits, employed the services of architects, engineers, contractors and surveyors for the purpose of designing and constructing the new shopping center, as well as lawyers to draw leases therefor;

That to insure the commercial success of the new shopping center appellants have negotiated and entered into leases with prospective tenants for the new shopping center, including Crocker Citizens National Bank and other business enterprises; that contracts had been let and work started in March 1965, and that tenants from the old shopping center moved out;

That the appellees are Pierson L. Pedley, employed as a Senior Right-of-Way Agent for the Department of Public Works of the State of California Division of Highways; John Erreca, Director of the California Department of Public Works and Administrative Officer of the California Highway Commission; Robert B. Bradford, James A. Guthrie, Joseph C. Houghteling, Roger S. Woolley, William S. Whitehurst, Abraham Kofman and Franklin S. Payne, members or officers of the Highway Commission of the State of California;

That in March, 1965, appellee Pierson Pedley informed appellants that all of the property above described would be taken in eminent domain by the State of California for the building of a freeway and requested appellants to cease construction and any further development of the property and stated that unless appellants interrupted and ceased the work under way on the new shopping center and re[962]*962frained from further work thereon, the California Department of Public Works would immediately file a condemnation action and obtain an injunction preventing appellants from further work on the new shopping center;

That such statements were made by Pedley for the purpose of inducing appellants to discontinue the development of the property; that appellants, relying on the statements of Pedley, stopped the construction of the new shopping center; that the statements made by Pedley were false and known by him to be false since in March, 1965 no condemnation action by the Department of Public Works could be commenced since at that time the members of the Highway Commission had not adopted a condemnation resolution, and no agreements had been reached with the City of Los Angeles regarding connections between the proposed freeway and surface streets, which facts were unknown to the appellants at that time who relied on the representations of Pedley;

That approximately two months later, and on May 25, 1965, the appellees named as members of the Highway Commission passed Condemnation Resolution No. C-7011, authorizing the condemnation of all of appellants’ property above described for highway purposes. A copy of the resolution is attached to and made a part of the amended complaint;

That such resolution was passed in bad faith to cloud the title to appellants’ property; that said resolution has not been implemented as its mere passage accomplished the goal of the appellees, and there appeared to be no intent to implement the resolution in the foreseeable future; that notwithstanding the adoption of such resolution appellee Erreca has failed to cause any good faith steps to be taken for the acquisition of the property;

That Erreca and Pedley have wrongfully and in bad faith caused the acquisition of said property to be delayed for the purpose of destroying any possibility of the completion of the appellants’ shopping center and for the purpose of destroying the value of said property;

That by reason of the fraudulent representations by Pedley, and by reason of the passage of the resolution by the members of the Highway Commission appellants’ property has effectively been taken by depriving appellants of their right and opportunity to use, develop, lease and encumber their property; that by reason of the acts of appellees the property cannot be leased nor can loans be secured against it; that no compensation for taking the appellants’ property has been made to appellants in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution;

That in making fraudulent representations for the purpose of inducing appellants to discontinue work on the new shopping center, and in passing the condemnation resolution in bad faith, and without making any compensation to appellants for the taking and damaging of appellants’ property, caused by the above acts, appellees have abused their position and power as state employees and officers, and under color of state statute, ordinance, regulation, custom and usage have subjected appellants to the deprivation of appellants’ rights secured by the United States Constitution and laws which provide that appellants’ property cannot be taken except for public use and then only upon payment of just compensation ;

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Sanders v. Erreca
377 F.2d 960 (Ninth Circuit, 1967)

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377 F.2d 960, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-erreca-ca9-1967.