Stockton Newspapers, Inc. v. Redevelopment Agency

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment on the pleadings in favor of defendants. The appeal involves California’s public meeting law (Gov. Code, § 54950 et seq.) known as the Ralph M. Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 54950.5; all subsequent references to sections of an unspecified code are to the Government Code). At issue here is whether a series of nonpublic telephone conversations, each between a member of the governing body of a local agency and its attorney, for the commonly agreed purpose of obtaining a collective commitment or promise by a majority of that body concerning public business, constitutes a “meeting” within the purview of the act. We conclude that such a series of telephone contacts does constitute a meeting within the act and, construed liberally as we are enjoined to do (Code Civ. Proc., § 452), that the complaint sufficiently alleges the occur rence of such a meeting and therefore, a violation of the act. Accordingly the judgment in defendants’ favor must be reversed.

A motion for a judgment on the pleadings serves the same function as a general demurrer, i.e., the motion will be granted only if the pleadings, although uncertain or otherwise defective in form,…