Aquafarm

Carlsbad Aquafarm, Inc. (Aquafarm) sued the State Department of Health Services (Department), alleging Department violated Aqua-farm’s due process rights by refusing to provide notice or a hearing before it failed to recertify Aquafarm to a list of approved interstate shellfish sellers. The jury found Aquafarm proved the due process violation, and awarded it damages of $290,000. Department appeals, asserting an argument it repeatedly made below: Aquafarm is not entitled to recover monetary damages based solely on the state Constitution’s due process provision. (Cal. Const., art. I, § 7.) For the reasons explained below, we agree and reverse.

Facts

Under well-settled appellate rules, we state the facts in the light most favorable to Aquafarm.

Background

Aquafarm harvests mussels for commercial sale at its facilities at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad. Because of bacteria levels in the lagoon, Aquafarm must specially clean the mussels in a process known as “depuration.” During depuration, the mussels are placed in tanks and held under sterilized running seawater to purge the bacteria.

Aquafarm sells its mussels to California and out-of-state customers. Two different…