Korean American Legal Advocacy Foundation v. City of Los Angeles

In these actions owners/operators of retail stores licensed to sell alcoholic beverages sought to prevent the City of Los Angeles (City) from imposing any conditions or restrictions on the rebuilding of their businesses destroyed during the civil disturbance in spring 1992. They also sought to prevent the City from imposing conditions on the operation of existing businesses under threat of revoking their deemed approved status under the City’s ordinance governing conditional uses.

Appellants and petitioners, Korean American Legal Advocacy Foundation, Soo Chun Cha, David Kim and Daniel K. Whang (plaintiffs), as taxpayers and persons affected by the City’s actions, filed an action, inter alia, for injunctive and declaratory relief. They contended the City’s ordinance was preempted by the California Constitution as well as provisions in the Business and Professions Code which provide the exclusive means for regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages. The trial court denied their request for a preliminary injunction and later sustained the City’s demurrer without leave to amend to those causes of action alleging state preemption of the City’s ordinance. We affirm the trial…