Sunday Mail, Inc. v. Christie

312 F. Supp. 677, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedMarch 2, 1970
DocketNo. 69-2495
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 312 F. Supp. 677 (Sunday Mail, Inc. v. Christie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunday Mail, Inc. v. Christie, 312 F. Supp. 677, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659 (C.D. Cal. 1970).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING RELIEF AND DISMISSING ACTION

WHELAN, District Judge.

This is an action in which plaintiffs seek injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment that Section 7.30.020 of Fullerton City Ordinance No. 1635 is unconstitutional.

Plaintiff The Sunday Mail, Inc., a corporation, is engaged in the business of publishing and circulating to the general public residing in the City of Fullerton a news magazine entitled Tempo The Sunday Journal. The plaintiffs Ramiro Gaez and Tusik Yza are engaged in the business of distributing and circulating respectively said news magazine and sue [678]*678as representatives of the classes of distributors and carriers.

Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that the defendants, the members of the City Council of Fullerton, have enacted a City Ordinance, No. 1635, a copy of which is attached to the complaint as Exhibit A, which provides in Section 7.30.020, “It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute, cast, throw or otherwise place any newspaper, magazine, handbill, pamphlet, circular, dodger or any other paper on any private residential property in the City without the express consent of the owner, or of an adult occupant, thereof, or of a person authorized by such owner or occupant to give such consent.” The complaint further alleges that the plaintiffs make deliveries of the Tempo The Sunday Journal to residences without obtaining advance express consent of the owner, and that the defendants, the Chief of Police of Fullerton and the City Attorney thereof, have repeatedly threatened plaintiffs with multiple arrests and prosecutions for each act of delivering said news magazine to residences without obtaining advance express consent of the owners, occupants, or agents thereof.

Plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order restraining the defendants from enforcing Section 7.30.020 of Ordinance No. 1635 by arrest and prosecution of the plaintiffs. No temporary restraining order issued but by stipulation of counsel the ordinance has not been enforced pending the disposition of plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. No arrests have yet been made and consequently no prosecutions for violation of the ordinance have been commenced. By written stipulation of counsel the hearing on the application for the preliminary injunction was consolidated with a trial on the merits, and the evidence, affidavits and written and oral argument submitted on the application for the temporary injunction were stipulated admissible on the trial on the merits and submitted thereon. The hearing and trial took place on January 12, 1970, and the cause has been submitted for decision.

Plaintiffs did not pursue their claim that this is a class action so that for all purposes it is determined that this is not a class action.

Plaintiffs contend that Section 7.30.-020 of the ordinance is void upon its face and seek declaratory relief from this Court declaring that section of the ordinance unconstitutional as violative of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

FACTS

Tempo The Sunday Journal is a weekly family news magazine which is and has been distributed throughout Orange County, including the City of Fullerton, each Sunday since November 2, 1969. It is distributed free of charge to its recipients, the cost of publication and distribution being paid entirely by advertising revenues. This, plaintiff corporation’s magazine, does not qualify for the low second-class mailing rate and would be required to use the higher third-class rate were the distribution to be done via the U. S. mails. The ordinance sought to be declared unconstitutional was passed by the City Council on November 18, 1969, and became effective on December 19, 1969. Plaintiff corporation argues that compliance with the ordinance would be extremely costly in terms of money to it. Plaintiffs contend that to secure advance consent would be too expensive for them to continue to distribute the free news magazine. Plaintiffs further state that when advised by a resident that the resident does not want delivery, the distributors are instructed to cease delivery, and also to cease delivery in the case of a residence where there is apparently no occupant, as where residents are on vacation. The defendants, on the other hand, have submitted affidavits of residents of Fullerton that despite written requests made to plaintiffs to cease distribution of the news magazine, deliveries continued to them.

[679]*679THE DOCTRINE OF ABSTENTION SHOULD APPLY TO THE REQUEST FOR AN INJUNCTION

This Court in its exercise of sound judicial discretion and in furtherance of the doctrine of abstention concludes that the extraordinary relief of injunction sought by plaintiffs herein is not warranted in this case. "Federal interference with a State's good-faith administration of its criminal laws `is peculiarly inconsistent with our federal framework' and a showing of `special circumstances' beyond the injury incidental to every proceeding brought lawfully and in good faith is requisite to a finding of irreparable injury sufficient to justify the extraordinary remedy of an injunction." Cameron v. Johnson, 390 U.S. 611, 618, 88 S.Ct. 1335, 1339, 20 L.Ed.2d 182 (1968); Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U.S. 241, 88 S.Ct. 391, 19 L.Ed.2d 444 (1967); Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 162, 63 S.Ct. 877, 87 L.Ed. 1324 (1942). There has been no showing of bad faith in the enforcement of the ordinance, which this Court notes is sufficiently narrowly drawn to indicate clearly what conduct constitutes a violation, to bring this case into a situation such as in Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965), where the Supreme Court found that the oppression of the complainants was sufficient to compel federal action. This is therefore not a case in which "* * * a federal court of equity by withdrawing the determination of guilt from the state courts could rightly afford [plaintiffs] any protection which they could not secure by prompt trial and appeal pursued to" the Supreme Court. Cameron v. Johnson, supra, 390 U.S. at p. 620, 88 S.Ct. 1335 at p. 1340, quoting Douglas v. City of Jeannette, supra, 319 U.S. at p. 164, 63 S.Ct. 877.

APPROPRIATENESS OF DECLARATORY RELIEF

However, even though the Court should abstain with respect to the injunctive relief sought, it is incumbent upon this Court to decide the appropriateness of considering declaratory relief in the circumstances of this case, and to consider the constitutionality of the ordinance in the event that the Court decides that it is appropriate to determine whether or not plaintiffs are entitled to a declaration as to the constitutionality of the ordinance. The Supreme Court in Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U.S. 241 (1967), at p. 254, 88 S.Ct. 391 at p. 399 said, “For a request for a declaratory judgment that a state statute is overbroad on its face must be considered independently of any request for injunctive relief against the enforcement of that statute. We hold that a federal district court has the duty to decide the appropriateness and merits of the declaratory requests irrespective of its conclusion as to the propriety of the issuance of the injunction.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
312 F. Supp. 677, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunday-mail-inc-v-christie-cacd-1970.