United States Ninth Circuit

In an action against the City of Santa Barbara claiming that its rent control ordinance was a taking of plaintiffs' property without compensation, and asserting numerous other claims, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) leaving the ordinance in place impairs no investment-backed expectations of plaintiffs, but nullifying it would destroy the value these tenants thought they were buying; and 2) the ordinance protected owners of mobile homes from the leverage owners of the pads have, to collect a premium reflecting the cost of moving the mobile home on top of the market value of use of the land, which was a legitimate government purpose, related to but distinct from lowering housing prices for all renters.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/22/2010
• Published 12/22/2010

Judges

• Andrew J. Kleinfeld

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert S. Coldren, Andrew W. Schwartz