City of Malibu v. California Coastal Com'n

• Decision Date: 25 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. B171650.,B171650.
• Citation: 27 Cal.Rptr.3d 501,128 Cal.App.4th 897
• Parties: CITY OF MALIBU et al., Plaintiffs, v. CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION et al., Defendants and Respondents; John M. Heidt, as Trustee, etc., et al., Movants and Appellants.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

27 Cal.Rptr.3d 501

128 Cal.App.4th 897

CITY OF MALIBU et al., Plaintiffs, v. CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION et al., Defendants and Respondents;

John M. Heidt, as Trustee, etc., et al., Movants and Appellants.

No. B171650.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1.

April 25, 2005.

Rehearing Denied May 24, 2005.

Hill, Farrer & Burrill and Dean E. Dennis, Los Angeles, for Movants and Appellants.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Tom Greene, Chief Assistant Attorney General, J. Matthew Rodriquez, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Daniel A. Olivas, Deputy Attorney General, for Defendants and Respondents.

MALLANO, Acting P.J John M. Heidt and Mary Ann K. Heidt, as trustees of the John M. Heidt Family Trust, Anne Heidt Sebastian, and John K. Heidt (the Heidts) appeal from an order denying their motion for leave to intervene in an action brought by the City of Malibu (Malibu) and David Geffen against defendants Access for All, a public benefit corporation, public agencies California Coastal Commission and California Coastal Conservancy, and Peter Douglas and Sam Schuchat in their capacities as officers of the public agencies. The Heidts contend that the trial court abused its discretion in denying intervention, arguing that they have a "direct and immediate interest" in the litigation, that their interests are not being adequately protected by Geffen, and that intervention would not enlarge the issues in the case. Because we conclude there was no abuse of discretion in the denial of intervention, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

The Heidts, who are the heirs of "big band" leader Horace Heidt, own a beachfront house on Pacific Coast Highway in the Carbon Beach area of Malibu. Geffen, a well-known entertainment industry executive, owns a residence that is situated on four contiguous beachfront lots, one of which lies immediately to the west of the Heidt residence. (The shoreline at Carbon Beach runs east-west.) In 1983, Geffen applied to the Coastal Commission for a permit to make certain improvements to his property. The Heidts appeared at Coastal Commission hearings on the permit and urged that it not be granted. The Heidts did not prevail and a permit was issued. The permit included a condition that Geffen sign an offer to dedicate (OTD) easements "to the People of California or the [Coastal] Commission's designee" that would give the public vertical and lateral access to the shoreline.¹ By its terms, the OTD would expire if not accepted within 21 years. With respect to the vertical easement, which is at the crux of this case, the OTD provided in part: "Said vertical access easement shall be located within an 18' wide corridor paralleling the western most property line of [Geffen's] property and shall provide for a privacy buffer of at least 9' in width between the access way [and the] developed property to the west of [Geffen's] holdings"; that is, the property belonging to the Heidts. Geffen signed the OTD.

In 1991 and 2000, two additional development permits were issued to Geffen, both conditioned on Geffen signing OTD's for additional lateral access. Again, Geffen did so.

On January 16, 2002, Access for All, the Coastal Commission, and the Coastal Conservancy entered into an agreement which provided that Access for All would manage the vertical easement and three lateral easements granted by Geffen. The agreement stated in part: "Access for All intends to operate [the] vertical easement from sunrise to sunset, consistent with Los Angeles County beach opening hours, as soon as possible. There is currently a wooden gate at the PCH sidewalk, presumably built by [Geffen], which could in theory be opened immediately. However, Access for All intends to work with the property owner to develop an access plan for sunrise to sunset access." On January 17, a "Certificate of Acceptance" was recorded with the Los Angeles County Recorder. It stated that Access for All had accepted Geffen's OTD's and that the Coastal Commission acknowledged the acceptance.

On July 3, 2002, Geffen and Malibu filed a petition and complaint against defendants Coastal Commission, Coastal Conservancy, the officers of these agencies, and Access for All, with Geffen alleging three causes of action in mandate, 10 causes of action for injunctive and declaratory relief, and a cause of action for quiet title. Malibu's allegations were limited to six of the causes of action. The gravamen of the petition and complaint was that the OTD's were invalid and that the process by which Access for All had accepted the OTD's violated constitutional and statutory law in several respects, including by failing to provide proper notice, by failing to be part of a statewide coastal access plan, and by failing to provide for environmental analysis. Defendants Coastal Commission, Coastal Conservancy, and their officers demurred to the petition and complaint, and to succeeding amended petitions and complaints, discussed below. (Access for All joined the demurrers of its codefendants.) The demurrer to the original complaint was sustained in part.

Geffen and Malibu thereafter filed a first amended petition and complaint. On December 6, 2002, a demurrer to this pleading was sustained in part, the trial court ruling that Geffen was barred from advancing any argument in this action that could have been made when he first signed the OTD's.

Also on December 6, 2002, the Heidts filed a motion for leave to file a complaint in intervention. In their motion, the Heidts asserted that they had satisfied the requirements of Code of Civil Procedure section 387, subdivision (b), for mandatory intervention and alternatively that they should be granted permissive intervention under subdivision (a) of that section. (Further section references are to the Code Civil Procedure) Defendants opposed the Heidts' motion. On January 14, 2003, in conjunction with a ruling regarding clarification of the December 6 order sustaining defendants' demurrer, the Heidts' motion was placed off calendar until a second amended petition and complaint had been filed.

A renewed request for intervention in the second amended petition and complaint was later denied without prejudice. Geffen and Malibu next filed their third amended petition and complaint, this time containing a total of two causes of action in mandate, six causes of action for declaratory and injunctive relief, and a cause of action for quiet title.

The Heidts again filed a motion for leave to intervene, now seeking to join in all causes of action of the third amended petition and complaint except for the allegation of quiet title. In support of their motion, the Heidts stated that they had never applied to the Coastal Commission for any development permits, had not received any benefit from the permits granted to Geffen, and had not received notice of the acceptance of Geffen's OTD's by Access for All. The Heidts asserted that their property would be directly affected by use of the vertical accessway, explaining that while the Geffen property "is sheltered from the accessway by a substantial wall, the front porch of the Heidt home looks directly upon and is less than 20 feet from the proposed accessway and gate." Also, "it will be quite easy for the public to trespass on the Heidt lot for any variety of legal and illegal purposes, use the property to deposit trash, etc. The beach currently has no lifeguards, no restrooms, no parking, or any kind of public facility." The Heidts added that Geffen and Malibu did not object to their intervening in the action.

On September 8, 2003, in conjunction with a ruling partially sustaining a demurrer to the third amended complaint, the Heidts's motion for intervention, which defendants had opposed, was denied.

The Heidts filed their notice of appeal from the trial court's ruling on November 6, 2003.² More amended petitions and complaints were later filed by Geffen, ultimately culminating in a sixth amended petition and complaint in which Malibu is no longer a party plaintiff. Defendants' answer was filed on October 28, 2004. The matter was set for trial to begin on June 6, 2005. At the March 22, 2005 oral argument on this appeal, counsel informed us that "the June trial had been put off for another 30 days," that it would be a mandate hearing (heard by the Honorable David P. Yaffe, who has made all of the rulings mentioned in this opinion), and that the hearing will be based on documentary evidence and declarations, with a possibility of live testimony, if appropriate.

RELEVANT LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Section 387, subdivision (a), provides that "[u]pon timely application, any person, who has an interest in the matter in litigation, or in the success of either of the parties, or an interest against both, may intervene in the action or proceeding. An intervention . . . is made by complaint ... filed by leave of court. . . ." Stated differently, "`the court has discretion to permit a nonparty to intervene in litigation pending between others, provided: [¶] The nonparty has a direct and immediate interest in the litigation; and [¶] The intervention will not enlarge the issues in the case; and [¶] The reasons for intervention outweigh any opposition by the existing parties. [Citations.]' [Citation.]" (Truck Ins. Exchange v. Superior Court (1997) 60 Cal.App.4th 342, 346, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 255.)

Under section 387, subdivision (b), "if the person seeking intervention claims an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action and that person is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede that person's ability to protect that interest, unless that person's interest is adequately represented by existing parties, the court shall, upon timely application, permit that person to intervene."

"[C]ourts have recognized California Code of Civil Procedure section 387 should be liberally construed in favor of intervention. [Citation.]" (Lincoln...