Robbins

SUMMARY

Section 490 of the Business and Professions Code permits the revocation of a license on the ground that the licensee has been convicted of a crime, if the crime is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the business or profession for which the license was issued. The Real Estate Commissioner issued a decision revoking Lance Jay Robbins’s license as a real estate broker, based on three criminal convictions for misdemeanor violations of the fire protection and prevention provisions of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, all strict liability offenses to which Robbins had entered pleas of nolo contendere. Robbins sought a writ of mandate requiring the commissioner to set aside the decision revoking his license. The trial court denied Robbins’s petition.

Robbins contends the trial court’s judgment must be reversed because there is no substantial relationship, as a matter of law, between his crimes and the qualifications, functions or duties of a real estate licensee. We disagree and affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Robbins was licensed as a real estate broker, and is also an attorney. On January 23, 2001, he pled nolo…