Stewart Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Oakland

In May 2012, Stewart Enterprises, Inc., and SE Combined Services of California, Inc. (collectively, Stewart), obtained a building permit to construct a crematorium on a site in East Oakland. Five days later, the Oakland City Council (City Council) passed an emergency ordinance requiring a conditional use permit (CUP) to operate new crematoria. Stewart administratively appealed a determination that the emergency ordinance applied to its proposed crematorium, but Oakland’s planning commission (Planning Commission) denied the appeal. Stewart then brought this action, which included administrative mandamus claims, against the City of Oakland, the City Council, and the Planning Commission (collectively, the City).

The trial court granted one of Stewart’s claims petitioning for writ of administrative mandamus, ruling that Stewart had a vested right in the building permit based on a preexisting local ordinance and that the emergency ordinance was not sufficiently necessary to the public welfare to justify an impairment of that right. On appeal, the City argues that (1) Stewart had no vested right; (2) even if Stewart had a vested right, it was not impaired; and (3) even if…