Veterans of Foreign Wars v. City of El Paso De Robles

In Ben-Zvi v. Edmar Co. (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 468, 475 [ 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 12 ], we said what seems to be obvious: “The purpose of the law of contracts is to protect the reasonable expectations of the parties.” As we shall explain, this observation applies to conveyances of land and compels reversal of the judgment. Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10965 and the American Legion Post 50 appeal from a judgment declaring that the City of El Paso de Robles (City) has no duty to maintain, repair, or replace the Paso Robles Veterans Building. We conclude that City has such an obligation, or in the alternative, to dedicate a substitute facility.

Facts and Procedural History

This action for declaratory relief was filed in 1993 after City closed the Paso Robles Veterans Building for safety reasons and claimed lack of funds to repair the building. A brief history of how the building came to be built is as follows.

On December 3, 1928, the trustees of the Robert Lionel Webster Post No. 50 American Legion conveyed the property at the comer of Fourth and Spring Streets in Paso Robles to the County of San Luis Obispo (County). County adopted a resolution to purchase the property for the…