In re Eastport Associates, CV 89-4364 TJH
| Decision Date | 20 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | CV 89-4364 TJH,Adv. No. LA 87-2413 BR.,Bankruptcy No. LA 87-5367 AMG,CV 89-3269 TJH |
| Citation | 114 BR 686 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of California |
| Parties | In re EASTPORT ASSOCIATES, Debtor. EASTPORT ASSOCIATES, Plaintiff and Cross-Appellant, v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Defendant and Appellant. |
James K. Hahn, City Atty., Claudia McGee Henry, Asst. City Atty., Jeri L. Burge, Robert N. Kwong, Deputy City Attys., Los Angeles, Cal., for appellant, City of Los Angeles.
Margaret M. Morrow, Quinn, Kully and Morrow, Robert A. Greenfield, Michael H. Goldstein, Stutman, Triester & Glatt, K. Phillip Knierim, Los Angeles, Cal., for Eastport Associates.
Eastport Associates ("Eastport") is a California limited partnership, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which owns approximately 1,500 acres of undeveloped land in the Santa Monica Mountains area of Los Angeles.
In June, 1978, the City of Los Angeles ("the City") approved a change of zone, Ordinance No. 151,208, to permit a 500-unit subdivision on the property. One of the many conditions on the change of zone was a restriction on development over 300 units until a secondary access road was provided over land owned by the County of Los Angeles ("the County").
In October, 1979, Eastport obtained a tentative subdivision map approval from the City, Tentative Tract No. 34300, to develop 500 units on the land. The same secondary access road condition applied to the tentative tract approval.
Neighboring property owners unsuccessfully challenged the rezoning and tentative tract approvals (hereinafter jointly referred to as "development entitlements") in Los Angeles County Superior Court, in Mandeville Canyon Ass'n v. City of Los Angeles, Action No. C 250415. Pursuant to a stipulated judgment, the commencement of the initial three-year period for Eastport's development entitlements was tolled until June 10, 1981, the date of entry of the judgment.
After the entry of judgment in Mandeville Canyon, Eastport attempted to acquire the property necessary to fulfill the secondary access road condition. On June 3, 1982, Eastport offered the County fair market value, as determined by a County appraiser. By March, 1983, Eastport had increased its offer to nine times that value. The County, however, consistently refused Eastport's offers, apparently because it wished to use the County property for a sanitary landfill.
The development entitlements were originally due to expire on June 10, 1984. The City, however, granted Eastport several extensions. The final extensions provided that the development entitlements would expire on June 10, 1987, unless Eastport performed the conditions or posted a bond and filed a final subdivision map with the City for approval.1
Eastport did not meet the June 10, 1987 deadline for perfecting its entitlements, and both the rezoning ordinance and tentative tract map expired on that date. Procedural History
On March 27, 1987, Eastport filed a Chapter 11 Petition in Bankruptcy, listing the property as an asset.
On November 18, 1987, Eastport filed the underlying adversary proceeding in the bankruptcy court. Eastport sought declaratory relief concerning the expiration of its development entitlements under the California Subdivision Map Act ("Map Act"), Cal.Gov't Code §§ 66410-66499.58.
In 1988, the City filed a motion to dismiss and a motion to abstain, and Eastport filed its first motion for summary judgment. In its motion, Eastport asserted that the secondary access road condition created a "development moratorium" preventing the expiration of its subdivision entitlements, pursuant to Cal.Gov't Code § 66452.6. This section provided that a development moratorium existed to extend development entitlements, for a period not to exceed five years, as follows:
For purposes of this section, a development moratorium shall include a water or sewer moratorium . . . as well as other actions of public agencies which regulate land use, development, or the provision of services to the land . . . which thereafter prevents, prohibits, or delays the approval of a final or parcel map. A development moratorium is deemed to exist for purposes of this section for any period of time during which a condition imposed by the city or county could not be satisfied because the condition was one which, by its nature, necessitated action by the city or county, and the city or county either did not take the necessary action or by its own inaction was prevented or delayed in taking the necessary action prior to expiration of the tentative map.
Cal.Gov't Code § 66452.6(f) (Deering 1987) ().
The bankruptcy court denied Eastport's motion for summary judgment, concluding that the secondary access road condition did not, by its nature, require City action to be fulfilled and that the County was acting in a private, rather than public, capacity in failing to provide the required access.
The bankruptcy court denied the City's motion to abstain, and, although it granted the City's motion for dismissal, no order of dismissal was entered.
Following the denial of its summary judgment motion, Eastport went to the state legislature and proposed an amendment to Cal.Gov't Code § 66452.6. In 1988, the legislature passed Senate Bill 186, sponsored by Senator Montoya. The Bill amended the Map Act to add, in part, the following provision:
A development moratorium shall also be deemed to exist for purposes of this section for any period of time during which a condition imposed by the city or county could not be satisfied because . . . (2) The condition necessitates acquisition of real property or any interest in real property from a public agency, other than the city or county that approved or conditionally approved the tentative map, and that other public agency fails or refuses to convey the property interest necessary to satisfy the condition.
Cal.Gov't Code § 66452.6(f) (West Supp. 1989).
After passage of the amendment, the bankruptcy court granted Eastport's motion for a rehearing and for summary judgment, and denied the City's second motion to abstain. The court held that the amendment applied retroactively to extend Eastport's development entitlements to June 10, 1989, plus an additional period of time during the pendency of this litigation. The court, however, reasserted that Eastport was not entitled to summary judgment under those portions of section 66452.6(f) relied on by Eastport in its original motion. The City filed a motion for reconsideration based on omitted legislative record, which was denied.
The City appeals the bankruptcy court's grant of summary judgment and denials of the City's motions for abstention and reconsideration. Eastport filed a cross-appeal, to be considered only if this Court finds that the amendment to section 66452.6 does not apply retroactively.
The key issue on appeal is whether Cal.Gov't Code § 66452.6(f), as amended, applies retroactively to extend Eastport's development entitlements. The Court concludes that, although the amendment applies to tentative maps approved prior to the statute's effective date of January 1, 1989, it does not apply to tentative maps that expired prior to that date.
A grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo on appeal. Ashton v. Cory, 780 F.2d 816, 818 (9th Cir.1986). Where, as here, the facts are undisputed, the Court must determine whether the trial court's interpretation and application of the relevant statute was proper. Id. Further, the Court is bound by California rules of construction in its interpretation of the state statute at issue. See In re Anderson, 824 F.2d 754, 756 (9th Cir.1987).
It is a well established rule of statutory construction that statutes are presumed to operate prospectively, absent a clear expression of legislative intent to the contrary. Evangelatos v. Superior Court, 44 Cal.3d 1188, 1207-08, 246 Cal.Rptr. 629, 640-41, 753 P.2d 585, 596-97 (1988). It cannot be disputed that application of the amendment to section 66452.6(f) to Eastport would be to apply the statute retroactively. "`A retrospective law is one which affects rights, obligations, acts, transactions and conditions which are performed or exist prior to adoption of the statute.'" Id. at 1206, 246 Cal.Rptr. 629, 753 P.2d 585 (quoting Aetna Casualty & Sur. Co. v. Indus. Accident Comm'n, 30 Cal.2d 388, 391, 182 P.2d 159 (1947)). In this case, the amendment alters the legal ramifications of the County's refusal to convey the necessary property interest, which occurred several years prior to passage of the amendment. Thus, if the amendment is to reach Eastport, it must be applied retroactively.
Eastport argues that the presumption against retroactivity does not apply here. First, Eastport contends that, under California law, courts are required to apply land use law in effect at the time of decision. Although the bankruptcy court accepted this argument in its conclusions of law, this Court disagrees.
The cases relied on by Eastport stand for the general proposition that where governmental permits are at issue, the reviewing court must apply the law in effect at the time of decision. Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Cal. Coastal Comm'n, 132 Cal.App.3d 678, 696, 183 Cal.Rptr. 395, 406 (1982); see also Selby Realty Co. v. City of San Buenaventura, 10 Cal.3d 110, 109 Cal. Rptr. 799, 514 P.2d 111 (1973) (); West Coast Advertising Co. v. City & County of San Francisco, 256 Cal.App.2d 357, 64 Cal.Rptr. 94 (1968) (); Sunny Slope Water Co. v. City of Pasadena, 1 Cal.2d 87, 33 P.2d 672 (1934) (...
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