Legal News

?Loncheros? prevail against city

By Richard Binder

Francisco Gonzalez, operator of a mobile catering vehicle in East Los Angeles for more than 12 years, wanted to challenge the thousands of dollars in citations he received during the past year under a city ordinance aimed at cracking down so-called "taco trucks."

He got help from a group of students in a clinical program that the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law launched this year.

On June 5, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Barry D. Kohn, ruling on their appeal from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation?s parking adjudication division, found that the state?s vehicle code, which regulates public safety, pre-empted the city ordinance.

"It means that the court of final jurisdiction has determined that it is pre-empted by state law, so that anyone who challenges it would be able to prove it is pre-empted and essentially would be unenforceable," said Ingrid Eagly, who teaches UCLA?s new criminal defense clinic.

The ordinance, enacted in its current form in 2006, says that the vehicles also known as "lunch trucks" or "loncheros" must move at least a half-mile every 30 to 60 minutes, depending on whether they are located in a residential or commercial district.

A similar Los Angeles County ordinance was found unconstitutional on the same grounds last year.

-- Amanda Bronstad

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).