City of Bakersfield v. Miller

In this appeal the defendant challenges the power of a municipality to determine that an existing building, failing to conform to current standards of safety incorporated in a municipal building code enacted since the construction of the building, is a public nuisance. The trial court determined that defendant’s hotel constituted a public nuisance under a City of Bakersfield ordinance and ordered that the statutory violations be corrected or that the upper floors of the building be vacated. Defendant’s cross-complaint, which sought to enjoin the city from posting signs proclaiming that the building is unsafe, was dismissed.

We conclude that the city acted within its constitutional and statutory powers in enacting and enforcing the ordinance and that the resultant judgment deprives defendant of no constitutionally protected right.

Defendant is the owner of record of the Hotel Padre, an eight-story building constructed in the central area of Bakersfield in 1929. His acrimonious dispute with the city originated in the autumn of 1955 when he received notice that the hotel did not conform to the city building code. There followed an interminable series of conferences between…