Pacific Palisades Asso. v. Huntington Beach

Pacific Palisades Asso. v. Huntington Beach

Opinion

 [*214]  [**539]   Plaintiff brought an action seeking to enjoin the City of Huntington Beach and its city marshal from attempting to enforce the provisions of an ordinance prohibiting plaintiff from erecting derricks, installing machinery, and drilling oil wells on its own lands within the city limits. The trial court sustained the general demurrer to the complaint, interposed by the defendants, and plaintiff declined to amend. Judgment was entered for the defendants, from which judgment plaintiff appeals.

The appellant is the owner of thirteen acres of land located within the boundaries of that portion of the City of Huntington Beach designated and set apart as a residence district in two ordinances to be hereinafter referred to. This land, it is alleged, is of great value for the purpose of producing [***2]  oil and kindred substances, and of a much less  [*215]  value for residential purposes. The predecessor in interest of appellant was about to enter into leases of the land to persons or corporations who agreed to drill oil wells thereon, and did enter into one lease whereby the lessee agreed to drill four wells, and by the terms of which the owner of the property would reasonably expect to receive a sum in excess of fifteen hundred dollars per day royalty from the production of oil therefrom. Just prior to the making of this lease, the board of trustees of Huntington Beach adopted an emergency ordinance, subsequently amending same, establishing a business and a residence district in the city, and making it unlawful, among other things, for any person, firm or corporation to erect, establish, carry on, or maintain within the residence or business districts an oil well or derrick, or the business of drilling or operating for the discovery or production of oil, gas, hydrocarbon, or other kindred substances. The lessee of appellant is ready, willing, and able to proceed with the drilling of wells and the production of oil on the lands of appellant, but he and appellant are prevented [***3]  from proceeding with their plans by reason of the ordinances referred to, the city threatening to prosecute appellant and imprison its officers, agents, or employees or any persons attempting to proceed with the production of oil under the terms of the lease.

It is alleged that the respondent city arbitrarily and without reason adopted the ordinances prohibiting the drilling for oil on appellant's land, and that its action is unreasonable, arbitrary, and discriminatory. In support of these general averments, it is alleged that the property of appellant is proven oil land, and is situate upon the principal oil-bearing district of the City of Huntington Beach. Within five hundred feet of appellant's easterly line there are now producing wells, and within nine hundred feet of its property there are no less than twenty completed wells. Some of these wells are in operation and produce large quantities of oil. Thirty-six blocks of Huntington Beach, lying north and east of appellant's premises, and within the purported residence district, are sparsely populated. The larger part of this territory is vacant and unoccupied by residences, there being not more than twenty houses in that [***4]  section of the city when the first ordinance was passed. Just east of the eastern boundary line of the established residence  [*216]  district, and not included therein, is the most costly elementary school building in the City of Huntington Beach, and a number of residences. Near the schoolhouse and the residences numerous oil wells have been drilled since the adoption of the ordinances, and derricks and engine-houses have been erected and oil-producing machinery installed. In another direction, within ten blocks of the lands of appellant, there is a section of the city more densely populated than the restricted area, the greater portion of which is occupied by residences, and in which the city has permitted the drilling of oil wells and the production of oil. The erection of oil derricks and engine-houses and the drilling of oil wells on its premises will not, appellant alleges, in any way endanger the safety, health, or welfare of the people of Huntington Beach.

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