Richards v. City of Tustin

COUGHLIN, J.

The plaintiffs are the owners of a parcel of property in the City of Tustin; own and operate a restaurant thereon; brought this action in declaratory relief seeking to compel the city to furnish their propery with sewage disposal service or deannex it from the city; and appeal from a judgment of dismissal entered upon an order sustaining a general demurrer to their complaint with leave to amend, which they refused to do.

The subject property was annexed to the City of Tustin in 1957 as uninhabited territory. The plaintiffs unsuccessfully objected to the annexation upon the ground, among others, that the city then was unable to supply necessary sewage disposal services for their restaurant. Thereafter they supplied their own sewerage facilities. During a part of this time septic tanks on their land supplemented by septic tanks on adjoining land were used for this purpose. In August 1960, the right to use the adjacent land was terminated. Since then, because of the soil condition of the plaintiffs’ land which is incapable of disposing of the effluent from the septic tanks thereon, the plaintiffs have been forced to pump and remove the sewage from those tanks. This has required an expenditure of $900 per month, which the plaintiffs claim is prohibitive and will result in the loss of their business. The plaintiffs have been informed “that steps will be taken by certain parties to abate the unsanitary, unhealthy and noisy situation” resulting from this method of disposition. Negotiations between the plaintiffs and the City of Tustin to effect a method whereby the sewage in question might be disposed of reached a stalemate when the plaintiffs concluded that a proposal by the city would effect only temporary relief and

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would not eliminate the noise and odor factors which were a source of health and noise problems.

It appears that the City of Santa Ana has a sewer line in a street bounding the plaintiffs’ property but will not permit the plaintiffs to discharge the sewage from their property into its line until the property is annexed to that city.

The plaintiffs requested the City of Tustin to deannex their property so that it might be annexed to the City of Santa Ana. Although the fact is not alleged in the complaint, it is asserted in the briefs herein without contradiction that this request for deannexation was denied.