San Remo Hotel L.P. v. San Francisco City & County

In the second appeal before this court, the owners of the San Remo Hotel challenge the constitutionality of a San Francisco ordinance which restricts an owner’s ability to convert “residential” hotel rooms to tourist use. A prior panel ordered Pullman abstention at plaintiffs’ request, and also declared some claims unripe, deferring a decision until after the claim had been litigated in the California courts. San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco, 145 F.3d 1095 (9th Cir.1998) (“SanRemo I”).

After losing their state takings claims in the California courts, San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco, 27 Cal.4th 643 , 117 Cal.Rptr.2d 269 , 41 P.3d 87 (2002) (“San Remo II”), the plaintiffs now seek to assert their federal takings claims in federal court. However, we agree with the district court that the California Supreme Court’s adjudication of the state takings claims was an “equivalent determination” of the federal takings claims, and that plaintiffs are therefore barred from relitigating the takings issues by the doctrine of issue preclusion, pursuant to this circuit’s precedent in Dodd v. Hood River County, 59 F.3d 852 (9th Cir.1995) (“Dodd I ”), and Dodd…