Long v. Mountain View Cemetery Ass'n

Decision Date24 January 1955
Citation130 Cal.App.2d 328,278 P.2d 945
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
PartiesClara Mae LONG, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. MOUNTAIN VIEW CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 16141.

Vaughns, Dixon & Smith, George R. Vaughns, William C. Dixon, Oakland, for appellant.

Clark & Heafey and Leon A. Clark, Oakland, Gerald P. Martin, Oakland, of counsel, for respondent.

NOURSE, Presiding Justice.

The plaintiff and appellant herein has appealed from an adverse judgment on the judgment roll alone. She is therefore bound by the findings of fact and if the judgment based on those findings is a proper judgment as a matter of law, no other issue is triable on this appeal.

These facts are: The defendant maintained a cemetery in which were burial plots, a crematorium, and three mausoleums, one of which was set aside for the exclusive use of members of the Caucasian race. The plaintiff demanded that her husband's remains be deposited in this restricted mausoleum. There is no contention that the other two were not just as suitable and as properly maintained as the third. There is no evidence of any kind showing why the plaintiff rejected this offer.

The only question of law involved here is whether section 51 of the Civil Code applies to this case. That section reads: 'All citizens within the jurisdiction of this state are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, restaurants, hotels, eating houses, places where ice cream or soft drinks of any kind are sold for consumption on the premises, barber shops, bath houses, theaters, skating rinks, public conveyances and all other places of public accommodation or amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to all citizens.'

The settled rule of law is that the expression 'all other places' means all other places of a like nature to those enumerated, i. e., 'restaurants, hotels' etc. In a similar case involving a like statute the Supreme Court of Illinois held that the expression "all other places of public accommodation and amusement" did not include cemeteries. People ex rel. Gaskill v. Forest Home Cemetery Co., 258 Ill. 36, 101 N.E. 219, 220, L.R.A.1917B, 946. Directly in point is the recent case of Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, Iowa, 60 N.W.2d 110, where the same rule was applied to the refusal of the cemetery to accept for burial the remains of an Indian in a plot of land restricted to the use of members of the Caucasian race.

There is no merit in any of the arguments of appellant.

Judgment affirmed.

KAUFMAN, Justice (concurring).

I concur on the authority of Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, 60 N.W.2d 110, where the Supreme Court of Iowa construed the Iowa Civil Rights Statute which is very similar...

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15 cases
  • Brennon B. v. Superior Court of Contra Costa Cnty.
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
    • 13 Noviembre 2020
    ...dentist's office, and a private school to make their facilities available to African–American patrons (see Long v. Mountain View Cemetery Assn. (1955) 130 Cal.App.2d 328, 278 P.2d 945...; Coleman v. Middlestaff (1957) 147 Cal.App.2d Supp. 833, 305 P.2d 1020 ...; Reed v. Hollywood Profession......
  • Curran v. Mount Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
    • 3 Octubre 1983
    ...(See In re Cox, supra, 3 Cal.3d at p. 214, 90 Cal.Rptr. 24, 474 P.2d 992.) For example, in Long v. Mountain View Cemetery Assn. (1955) 130 Cal.App.2d 328, 329, 278 P.2d 945, the court held "the expression 'all other places' means all other places of a like nature to those enumerated," and t......
  • Brennon B. v. Superior Court of Contra Costa Cnty.
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • 4 Agosto 2022
    ...v. Middlestaff (1957) 147 Cal.App.2d Supp. 833, 834–836, 305 P.2d 1020 [dentist's office not covered]; Long v. Mountain View Cemetery Assn. (1955) 130 Cal.App.2d 328, 329, 278 P.2d 945 [private cemetery not covered]].) The intention behind the 1959 legislation was "to revise and expand the ......
  • Isbister v. Boys' Club of Santa Cruz, Inc.
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • 21 Octubre 1985
    ...v. Middlestaff (1957) 147 Cal.App.2d Supp. 833, 834-836, 305 P.2d 1020 [dentist's office not covered]; Long v. Mountain View iCemetery Assn. (1955) 130 Cal.App.2d 328, 329, 278 P.2d 945 [private cemetery not covered].) "Accordingly, the Legislature, enacting the Unruh Act, modified the [pri......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • ON TIME, (IN)EQUALITY, AND DEATH.
    • United States
    • Michigan Law Review Vol. 120 No. 2, November 2021
    • 1 Noviembre 2021
    ...supra note 13. (23.) Mark E. Wojcik, Discrimination After Death, 53 OKLA. L. REV. 389, 390 (2000); Long v. Mountain View Cemetery Ass'n, 278 P.2d 945, 946 (Cal. Dist. Ct. App. 1955); People ex rel. Gaskill v. Forest Home Cemetery Co., 101 N.E. 219, 220-21 (Ill. 1913); Rice v. Sioux City Mem......

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