MHC Financing Limited Partnership Two v. City of Santee

Under Elections Code section 9215, the city council of defendant City of Santee (the City) adopted without alteration a mobilehome rent control ordinance that was proposed by an initiative petition. However, it was later discovered that as a result of administrative mistake and inadvertence, there were differences between the text of the ordinance the City adopted (Ordinance 381) and that of the ordinance that was circulated with the initiative petition. The City eventually sought to cure the defects in the enactment of Ordinance 381 by enacting the correct version of the initiative-proposed ordinance (Ordinance 412) and mating it retroactively effective to the effective date of Ordinance 381.

Plaintiff MHC Financing Limited Partnership Two (MHC), an owner and operator of a mobilehome park in the City, filed the instant action against the City seeking a judicial declaration that both Ordinance 381 and Ordinance 412 were null and void and raising other claims pertaining to the ordinances. The case was tried to the court without a jury and the court entered judgment in favor of MHC, declaring the ordinances void and enjoining the City from enforcing them. The court denied…