Don Wilson Builders v. City of Torrance

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment in which the court below granted defendants’ motion for judgment under Code of Civil Procedure section 631.8, subdivision (a), in favor of defendants City of Torrance (hereafter City) and Torrance Unified School District of Los Angeles County (hereafter School District).

Except for oral testimony by the president of the corporate plaintiff, and documentary evidence, the action for declaratory relief was tried to the court sitting without a jury on a stipulation of facts, which in pertinent part are summarized below:

In addition to the stipulation of facts, the court at trial found that there was no conspiratorial agreement between the City and the School District to dispose of the property to a third party for profit.

The trial court, on the basis of the stipulated facts and testimony at trial, concluded as a matter of law: (1) Statutes which govern the transaction were former Education Code section 16201 et seq. and section 16051 et seq., as appeared in 1975; (2) Government Code section 54220 has no application to this transaction, casts no duties on the parties, and is no more than an expression of a legislative belief that there is…