House v. Los Angeles County Flood Control District
House v. Los Angeles County Flood Control District
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a judgment of dismissal entered after the trial court had sustained a demurrer to the plaintiff’s first amended complaint without leave to amend.
The plaintiff, as the owner of certain land in Los Angeles County adjacent to the Los Angeles River, undertakes to state a cause of action based upon damages to her property by reason of the negligence of the defendant district in its planning, construction and maintenance of certain flood control channel work in said river. She rests her right of recovery upon article I, section 14, of the state Constitution, which provides that private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation to the owner. The trial court erred in failing to sustain the constitutional basis of the plaintiff’s claim under the distinguishable concept of her pleading.
As appears from the amended complaint, the gist of the plaintiff’s case is as follows: In pursuance of its plan for flood control, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District removed permeable dikes, piling, wire mesh and groins that bordered the Los Angeles River adjacent to the plaintiff’s land and replaced these installations with levees. The effect of the dikes and other obstructions had been to reduce the high velocity of the river waters in flood season by permitting them to spread over an extensive overflow area, leaving a de
It would serve no useful purpose to engage here in a detailed discussion of the opposing arguments as to whether under the above mentioned constitutional provision a public agency in the installation of river channel improvements is generally liable to the property owner for overflow damage incident to the exercise of such governmental function. The divergent views on that unqualified proposition were fully
A case closely in point here is Pacific Seaside Home v. Newbert P. District, 190 Cal. 544 [213 P. 967], where the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s pleading was likewise under attack. There this court said at pages 545-546: “. . . The defendant was a public corporation . . . entitled to maintain and defend actions in law and in equity . . . and would be liable for the negligent diversion of storm waters upon the plaintiff’s property. (Elliott v. County of Los Angeles, 183 Cal. 472, 475 [191 P. 899].) The gist of the plaintiff’s complaint is that the defendant constructed channels for the water of the Santa Ana River so defectively and negligently that they would not carry the waters of the stream. Plaintiff alleges that ‘had the defendant not changed the natural course of the Santa Ana River, or in anywise interfered with its natural flow, the waters of the Santa Ana River would have flowed on into Newport Bay and no damage would have accrued to the plaintiff had the said river been permitted to flow as it naturally would had not the defendant constructed its channel to divert the same. . . .’ It is further alleged in effect that the injury occurred to the plaintiff by reason of the fact that the defendant negligently turned the waters of the Santa Ana River in a channel which was too small, and which was negligently constructed and maintained, and that by reason thereof it was damaged.
“These facts sufficiently state a cause of action.” (Italics added.)
The Elliott and Pacific Seaside Home cases were cited as the basis for upholding the sufficiency of the plaintiffs’ complaint against a general demurrer in the first appellate consideration of the damage claim presented in Archer v. City of Los Angeles, 15 Cal.App.2d 520 [59 P.2d 605], The pleading was described by the District Court of Appeal as follows at pages 521-522: "The gist of [the] . . . complaint ... is that respondent constructed and built an artificial drainage system so defectively, carelessly and negligently that it would not carry the storm waters to the Pacific Ocean as designed and intended” and “that the injury to the appellants occurred by reason of the fact that respondent negligently turned the storm waters into La Ballona lagoon, which was too small to
In the present case the defendant district may not escape liability on any theory of exercising a riparian right, for the plaintiff does not correlate her damage claim with any such principle.- Bather she makes the direct charge that the defendant district removed a safe and secure protection to her land immediately adjacent thereto and substituted therefor an unsafe, carelessly and negligently planned bank or wall, resulting in the overflow, inundating and washing away of her property, which had theretofore never been visited by the
Unquestionably, under the pressure of public necessity and to avert impending peril, the legitimate exercise of the police power often works not only avoidable damage but destruction of property without calling for compensation. Instances of this character are the demolition of all or parts of buildings to prevent the spread of conflagration, or the destruction of diseased animals, of rotten fruit, or infected trees where life or health is jeopardized. In such cases calling for immediate action the emergency constitutes full justification for the measures taken to control the menacing condition, and private interests must be held wholly subservient to the right of the state to proceed in such manner as it deems appropriate for the protection of the public health or safety. (18 Am.Jur. 778; 29 C.J.S. 784.) But the present case.does not appear to be one of such emergency character as would preclude the defendant district from being held liable for unnecessary damage resulting from the alleged inadequate and negligent planning, construction and maintenance of its flood channel project. According to the plaintiff’s pleading, the defendant district, with time to exercise a deliberate choice of action in the manner of its installation
For the foregoing reasons the defendant district’s exercise of the police power does not of itself furnish complete justification for the infliction of damage upon the plaintiff’s property without liability for compensation. Under the theory of her pleading, the plaintiff has alleged facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action within the scope of article I, section 14, of the state Constitution, and it was error for the trial court to rule otherwise. The judgment of dismissal is therefore reversed.
Gibson, C. J., and Shenk, J., concurred.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the judgment. Since this is an appeal from a judgment following an order sustaining a demurrer, the following allegations of the first amended complaint must be regarded as true. The Los Angeles River, which becomes a menace to the neighboring property during the rainy season because of its violent floods, overflowed plaintiff’s land during a storm in the first days of March, 1938, washed out the land to a depth of approximately six to ten feet, and destroyed buildings, other improvements, and personal property. The injury was caused by a system of flood control installed by defendant in the period between December, 1935, and the storm. The plaintiff’s property would have been protected from the flood, as it was in January, 1934, during an even greater flood, had the defendant not replaced the former system of flood control, installed by defendant between 1917 and 1930, with new structures that were inadequate for the purpose. The former installations consisted of permeable dikes of piling and wire mesh along the margin of the river bed through which the waters could freely flow into an overflow area on both sides of the river channel. These structures and the riparian vegetation reduced the velocity of the flood waters, rendering them less dangerous to neighboring property. Groins installed transversely to the overflow area accomplished the restoration and maintenance of the natural condition of the river by causing a regrowth of vegetation in the overflow area and the building up of that area with silt deposited by the water. The new construction work, mainly excavation of the river channel and installation of levees along its banks, necessitated removal of the shrubs and trees along the river. The channel was narrowed and its capacity to carry water lowered, while the velocity of the water through the channel was increased. Since the levees lacked adequate openings to permit the drainage waters to flow into the river, the danger to the adjacent land from overflowing water was intensified. The levees were built several feet above the level of the riparian area and were thus exposed to great pressure by the water compressed
Defendant contends that plaintiff is seeking to revive an issue settled in Archer v. City of Los Angeles, 19 Cal.2d 19 [119 P.2d 1], and in O’Hara v. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist., 19 Cal.2d 61 [119 P.2d 23], The Archer case involved the question whether a governmental agency is liable under article I, section 14, when improvements constructed by it along the natural course of a stream accelerate the flow of the water, and lower lands are flooded because of the inadequacy, known to the governmental agency, of the outlet to accommodate the increased flow. It was held that the governmental agency was not liable, since there is no liability under the constitutional provision if the property owner would have no cause of action were a private person to inflict the damage, and there would have been no cause of action against a private person for installing improvements in the stream accelerating the flow of the water but not diverting it out of its channel. (San Gabriel Valley Country Club v. County of Los Angeles, 182 Cal. 392 [188 P. 554, 9 A.L.R. 1200].) The O’Hara case involved the same question as the Archer case as well as the question Avhether a governmental agency is liable under the constitutional provision to a property owner whose property was damaged by the obstruction of the flow of surface water not running in a natural channel resulting from an embankment that prevented the drainage of surface waters into the .river. In reliance on Corcoran v. City of Benicia, 96 Cal. 1 [30 P. 798, 31 Am.St.Rep. 171]; Conniff v. San Francisco, 67 Cal. 45 [7 P. 41]; Jefferis v. City of Monterey Park, 14 Cal.App.2d 113 [57 P.2d 1374]; and
Defendant contends that article I, section 14, is inapplicable upon the grounds that defendant did not deliberately take or damage plaintiff’s property and did not utilize it for the purposes of its public improvements, and that therefore the damages were not sustained for “public use,” and were too remote in point of time and foreseeability to be incident to defendant’s public undertaking.
Defendant is a publtion created by an act of the Legislature, known as the “Los Angeles Flood Control Act” (Stats. 1915, p. 1502, as amended; Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 4463), to protect lands, including harbors and public highways from flood waters and to conserve the flood waters ic corporafor useful purposes. (§2 of the act; Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Hamilton, 177 Cal. 119, 126 [169 P. 1028].) These purposes are essentially public although beneficial to many private individuals (see Los Angeles v. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist., 11 Cal.2d 395, 404 [80 P.2d 479]; Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Hamilton, supra, p. 124; Cheseboro v. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist., 306 U.S. 459, 465 [59 S.Ct. 622, 83 L.Ed. 921]; see 29 C.J.S. 852; 70 A.L.R. 1274), and the Legislature properly vested defendant with the power of eminent domain. (§§2(6), 16, 16% of the act.) Property taken or damaged for defendant’s purposes is therefore “taken or damaged for public use” in the sense of the constitutional provision. In the absence of contract the right to discharge water onto another’s property may be based on property law or on the police power of the state. (Archer v. City of Los Angeles, supra, at p. 24.) If the discharging of water incident to the construction of a public
According to the complaint the injury to plaintiff’s land was caused by direct invasion thereof by water bursting through defendant’s levees. Compensation for that injury is called for under article I, section 14, if the flood waters would not have injured her property but for the directing of the water out of its channel onto the plaintiff’s property because of the defectiveness of the levees. By allowing the water to leave its channel and to burst onto the plaintiff’s land, the levees diverted the water out of its natural channel. Barring situations of immediate emergency, neither the property law nor the police power of the state entitles a governmental agency to divert water out of its natural channel onto
Edmonds, J., concurred.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the judgment of reversal but I do not agree with that portion of the majority opinion which attempts to distinguish this case from the cases of Archer v. City of Los Angeles, 19 Cal.2d 19 [119 P.2d 1]; and O’Hara v. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist., 19 Cal.2d 61 [119 P.2d 23]. These last mentioned cases are not distinguishable from the case at bar, and in my opinion, the only sound basis upon which the case at bar can be reversed is that stated in my dissenting opinions in the above cited cases. In these dissenting opinions I pointed out the patent fallacy of the theory upon which the majority opinions in those cases was based, and Mr. Justice Curtis concurred in those dissenting opinions. My opinion in regard to those cases has not changed because the views expressed in my dissenting opinions therein were and are absolutely sound. It now appears that a majority of this court are not satisfied with the conclusion reached in the majority opinions in the Archer and O’Hara cases, but instead of overruling these cases, they have attempted to distinguish them from the case at bar. I do not approve of this practice as it merely adds to the confusion which already exists. However, by limiting the application of the doctrine announced in those cases, the majority opinion in the case at bar has taken a commendable step, and I trust that the time will come in the not distant future when a majority of this court will have the wisdom, foresight and courage to take the further step and expressly overrule the Archer and 0 'Hara cases and thus remove the injustice and confusion which those decisions have brought to the law of this state.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the foregoing judgment and opinion. The distinction made in the opinion between this
Reference
- Full Case Name
- LILLIAN CANDACE HOUSE, Appellant, v. LOS ANGELES COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, Respondent
- Cited By
- 91 cases
- Status
- Published