Suttles v. Hollywood Turf Club

California Court of Appeal Jun 11, 1941 No. Civ. 12465Published

Before: York

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Holding. The court held that a racetrack operator's refusal to admit patrons to a specific section of the facility based on their race constitutes an illegal discrimination under California's Civil Rights Act, specifically sections 51 and 52 of the Civil Code.

Issues

Whether a racetrack is a place of public accommodation subject to the anti-discrimination provisions of Civil Code section 51.
Whether the refusal to admit patrons to a specific section of a racetrack based on race violates the Civil Rights Statute.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“It is admitted by appellant that the respondents purchased tickets to the clubhouse and were refused admission thereto because they were Negroes. This is clearly a violation of the statute.”

“It would therefore appear that section 53 of the Civil Code does not exclude respondents from bringing their action under section 51, notwithstanding the fact that a racecourse is not specifically enumerated in the latter section.”

YORK, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding to each of the respondents the sum of $100 on account of appellant’s refusal to admit them to the clubhouse maintained at Hollywood Park, a racetrack operated by appellant corporation at Inglewood.

From the record herein it appears that respondents at a cost of $2.20 each, procured from Gittelson Brothers, an independent ticket agency operating an office at the, Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, reservations in the form of an order on appellant for the delivery to respondent Suttles of two box seats for the races on July 21, 1938. In addition, respondents procured two tickets of admission to the clubhouse, paying the sum of $2.75 each therefor. When respondents presented their tickets for admission to the said clubhouse, the attendant stated, “You cannot come in here. We do not allow Negroes in this place”; whereupon respondents in an orderly and peaceable manner left the racetrack, although an opportunity was afforded them to be seated in the grandstand, generally referred to as the general admission section, the price of such facility being $1.10 per person.

Respondents instituted the instant action under the so-called Civil Rights Statute of this state, embodied in sections 51 to 54, inclusive, of the Civil Code.

Section 51 entitles all citizens of the state 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.”

Section 52 fixes the liability in damages in an amount not less than $100 of anyone who “denies to any citizen, except for reasons applicable alike to every race or color, the full accommodations, advantages, facilities and .privileges enumerated in section 51 ... or whoever makes any discrimination, distinction or restriction on account of color or race ... ”.

Section 53 makes it “unlawful for any corporation, person

[285]

Suttles v. Hollywood Turf Club

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YORK, P. J.

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