Kaahumanu v. County of Maui
| Decision Date | 14 January 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-15189.,02-15189. |
| Parties | Laki KAAHUMANU; The Harvest Chapel Church of God; Sandra Barker; Double S Inc., dba A Romantic Maui Wedding, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF MAUI; J. Kalani English, Chair of Maui County Land Use Committee and Maui County Council Member; Patrick Kawano, Chair of Maui County Council; Dain Kane; Michael A. Davis; John Wayne Enriques; G. Riki Hokama; Dennis Nakamura; Wayne Nishiki; Charmaine Tavares, Maui County Council Members, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
James H. Fosbinder and Rhonda M. Fosbinder, Fosbinder & Fosbinder, Kahului, HI, for the plaintiffs-appellees.
Victoria J. Takayesu, Deputy Corporation Counsel, Wailuku, Maui, HI, for the defendants-appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawai`i; Alan C. Kay, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-01-00689-ACK.
Before: SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, ALARCÓN and FISHER, Circuit Judges.
This case arises from the Maui County Council's denial of a conditional use permit that would have allowed plaintiffs-appellees ("plaintiffs") to conduct a commercial wedding business on beach-front residential property. Plaintiffs brought suit under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, against Maui County and members of the Maui County Council in their individual and official capacities after the Council voted not to grant the permit. The defendants-appellants ("defendants") moved to dismiss the claims against the Council members in their individual capacities, arguing that the individual-capacity claims were barred by legislative immunity. The district court denied the motion to dismiss the individual-capacity claims. The defendants now appeal the denial of legislative immunity.
Maui may be to weddings in the first decade of this century what Reno was to divorces in the middle decades of the last.1 As the Maui Visitor's Bureau puts it:
"Paradise" is a word that takes on special meaning for couples planning to marry or honeymoon in Maui's Magic Isles. What better time for a magical sunset or moonlit walk on a tropical beach? What better setting than a tumbling waterfall framed by hillsides carpeted in exotic blooms and gorgeous green rainforest? Candle-lit dinners in a world class restaurant; snorkeling in an underwater garden; hiking the magnificent Haleakala Crater; the list of guaranteed memories goes on and on.
Aloha from Maui Visitors Bureau, Weddings/Honeymoons, at http://www.visitmaui.com/index.html (last visited Jan. 6, 2002).
Plaintiff Sandra Barker runs a commercial wedding business, Double S Inc., under the trade name "A Romantic Maui Wedding." Plaintiff Laki Kaahumanu, Pastor of Harvest Chapel Church of God, conducts some of the ceremonies Barker arranges. In 1998, Barker began to arrange wedding ceremonies at her beach-front home. She also provided beach access through her property for wedding ceremonies on the public beach.
On September 3, 1998, Barker applied for a conditional use permit (CUP) so she could continue to use her beachfront property, which is located in a residential district, as a commercial wedding venue.2 If the proposed use of Barker's property had fallen within one of the "special uses" listed in the Maui County Code (MCC), such as "[c]hurches together with accessory buildings," Barker could have applied to the Maui Planning Commission for a special use permit. MCC §§ 19.08.030, 19.510.070. A special use is one that "meets the intent and purpose of the zoning district but which requires the review and approval of the appropriate planning commission in order to ensure that any adverse impacts on adjacent uses, structures or public services and facilities which may be generated by the use can be, and are, mitigated." Id. § 19.04.040. The final authority to grant a special use permit rests with the Planning Commission. Id. § 19.510.070.
Because Barker's business did not fall within a designated special use, however, she had to apply for a conditional use permit, which can only be granted through the enactment of an ordinance by the Maui County Council. Id. § 19.40.070. A conditional use permit is intended for uses that are "similar, related or compatible to ... permitted uses and which ha[ve] some special impact or uniqueness such that [their] effect[s] on the surrounding environment cannot be determined in advance of the use being proposed for a particular location." Id. § 19.040.010. The Maui Planning Commission hears and reviews an application for a CUP and makes a recommendation to the Maui County Council. Id. § 19.40.020. The Council then enacts or declines to enact an ordinance approving the CUP. Id. § 19.40.070.
On June 17, 1999, after an administrative review of Barker's application, the Maui Planning Commission recommended to the Council that the CUP be approved. On October 20, 2000, a subcommittee of the Council, the Land Use Committee, held a two-hour public meeting at which some members of the public argued against the permit. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Land Use Committee recommended denial of the permit. The Maui County Council voted to reject Barker's application that same day.
On November 24, 2000, Barker and Kaahumanu were cited for "continuing to conduct commercial weddings and other related activities" on the beachfront property and fined $1000.
The plaintiffs filed suit for monetary, declaratory and injunctive relief against the Maui County Council and its members in their individual and official capacities under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 for violation of the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and under RLUIPA, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc.
The defendants moved under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to dismiss the claims against the Council members in their individual and official capacities. They argued that the individual-capacity claims were barred by legislative immunity and that the official-capacity claims were duplicative of the claims against the County of Maui.
The district court denied the motion to dismiss the individual-capacity claims on the ground of legislative immunity but granted the motion to dismiss the official-capacity claims. The members of the Maui County Council, in their individual capacities, now appeal the district court's denial of legislative immunity.
We review de novo a district court's decision to grant or deny legislative immunity. San Pedro Hotel v. City of Los Angeles, 159 F.3d 470, 476 (9th Cir.1998).
The Supreme Court has long held that state and regional legislators are absolutely immune from liability under § 1983 for their legislative acts. See Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 376-77, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019 (1951) (state legislators); Lake Country Estates, Inc., v. Tahoe Reg'l Planning Agency, 440 U.S. 391, 405, 99 S.Ct. 1171, 59 L.Ed.2d 401 (1979) (regional legislators). They are immune not for the sake of private indulgence, but so they may freely discharge their public duties as legislators. Tenney, 341 U.S. at 377, 71 S.Ct. 783. Thus, the immunity attaches only to actions taken "in the sphere of legitimate legislative activity." Id. at 376, 71 S.Ct. 783. In Bogan v. Scott-Harris, 523 U.S. 44, 49, 118 S.Ct. 966, 140 L.Ed.2d 79 (1998), the Supreme Court extended this immunity to local legislators, holding them "absolutely immune from suit under § 1983 for their legislative activities."3
We have recognized that "not all governmental acts by ... a local legislature[] are necessarily legislative in nature." Cinevision Corp. v. City of Burbank, 745 F.2d 560, 580 (9th Cir.1984). "Whether an act is legislative turns on the nature of the act, rather than on the motive or intent of the official performing it." Bogan, 523 U.S. at 54, 118 S.Ct. 966. The question before us, then, is whether the actions of the Council members, when "stripped of all considerations of intent and motive," were legislative rather than administrative or executive. Id. at 55, 118 S.Ct. 966.
"The Supreme Court `has generally been quite sparing in its recognition of claims to absolute official immunity.'" Chateaubriand v. Gaspard, 97 F.3d 1218 1220 (9th Cir.1996) (quoting Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 224, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988)). "The burden of proof in establishing absolute immunity is on the individual asserting it." Trevino v. Gates, 23 F.3d 1480, 1482 (9th Cir.1994).
We determine whether an action is legislative by considering four factors: (1) "whether the act involves ad hoc decisionmaking, or the formulation of policy"; (2) "whether the act applies to a few individuals, or to the public at large"; (3) "whether the act is formally legislative in character"; and (4) "whether it bears all the hallmarks of traditional legislation." Bechard v. Rappold, 287 F.3d 827, 829 (9th Cir.2002) () (internal quotation marks omitted). We consider each factor in turn, but recognize that they are not mutually exclusive.4
(1) Ad hoc decision making: The defendants argue that a decision to grant or deny a conditional use permit is an act of public policy rather than an ad hoc decision because it involves the exercise of considerable discretion. They argue that because a CUP authorizes a use that would otherwise be prohibited under the existing comprehensive zoning ordinance, a CUP therefore temporarily modifies and supersedes the policies contained in that ordinance. The plaintiffs respond that such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, and that as a practical matter, the consequences of each individual permit do not alter the underlying legislative policy.
The district court rightly concluded that the...
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