Grogan v. Meyer

64 Cal.2d 875 (1966) JOYCE GROGAN, Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

ERICH MEYER, Defendant and Respondent.

S.F. No. 22020. Supreme Court of California. In Bank.

May 10, 1966. Ephraim Margolin, Marshall W. Krause, Arnold M. Greenberg, Richard A. Bancroft and Elliott Leighton for Plaintiff and Appellant.

John F. Duff, Richard G. Logan, Cyril A. Coyle, James S. DeMartini, Thomas Arata, William J. Bush, Peter J. Donnici, James T. McDonald, Richard B. Morris, Jack Greenberg, Robert M. O'Neil, Joseph B. Robison, Sol Rabkin, Duane B. Beeson, Seymour Farber, Robert H. Laws, Jr., Howard Nemerovski and John G. Clancy as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant.

No appearance for Defendant and Respondent.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, William French Smith, Samuel O. Pruitt, Jr., and Charles S. Battles, Jr., as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Memorandum

PEEK, J.

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment for defendant entered upon the granting of defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint in an action for damages pursuant to statutory provisions making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of color, race or national origin in the rental of dwelling places. (Civ. Code, 51, 52; Health & Saf. Code, 35710, 35720.)

It is alleged in plaintiff's complaint filed in the municipal court that on May 11, 1963, defendant offered for rental a dwelling unit in a four-unit apartment building; that plaintiff sought to rent the apartment on the terms advertised; that [876] defendant refused the rental solely for the reason that plaintiff is a Negro, and that defendant followed a general policy of denying to all Negroes the right to occupy property owned or managed by him.

Defendant's answer admitted only that he was in the business of renting apartments and denied the other allegations of the complaint.