Lynch v. City of Los Angeles

This is an appeal by the city and the chief of the electrical division of the Department of Building and Safety, from a judgment granting an injunction against the enforcement of city ordinance No.-94073, requiring state-licensed electrical contractors to pay a fee of $100 per year, and to post a surety bond conditioned on compliance with the local law, as a condition precedent to the issuance of permits to do electrical contracting work within the city.

The amended complaint recites that respondent is an electrical contractor licensed under the state Contractor’s License Act and that “his earnings as a contractor, 90% of which are from work done within the City of Los Angeles, are the sole means of support for himself and his family.” On February 1, 1951, “respondent was refused the electrical wiring permit for which he applied by reason of the fact that he had not paid permit service fees in the sum of $200.00 (for the years 1950 and 1951) and had not posted the bond required. ’ ’ The complaint alleges that the ordinance in question is regulatory, arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory and uncertain, and requires the fee to be paid regardless of whether or not certain…