Newsom

Discussion. Michalowski for Defendants and Respondents County of San Diego and Wilma J. Wooten.

This putative class action against California (state) and San Diego County (county) officials challenges Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency orders and related public health directives restricting business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs, owners of affected restaurants and gyms (Owners), primarily contend the orders are procedurally invalid because they were adopted without complying with the

Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (Gov. Code,1 § 11340 et seq.). Owners further maintain that the business restrictions are substantively invalid because they effected a taking without compensation, violating the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Rejecting these claims, the superior court sustained demurrers to the third amended complaint (Complaint) without leave to amend and dismissed the action. We fully appreciate that the adverse effects of the present pandemic have not fallen equally on all segments of society, and that some small business owners are among those who have borne an especially heavy burden. As we recently noted, “Businesses have closed…