Rowe v. Lake County

Filed 4/18/06 Rowe v. Lake County CA1/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

Darlene Mae Rowe appeals from the trial court's order granting summary judgment against her amended complaint, which named Lake County, Lake County Sheriff's Department (sheriff's department), Lake County Department of Animal Care and Control (animal control), Animal Control Officer Denise Johnson, Sheriff's Officer Deshung, and Sheriff's Officer Eagleton (collectively, Lake County) as defendants. The court found that Lake County met its burden of establishing no legal or factual basis for Rowe's claims of injury following the removal of numerous cats from her home. This evidence remained unchallenged as Rowe filed her opposition to the motion on summary judgment late and never filed a separate statement of facts as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 437c, subdivision (b)(3).^[1] We uphold the lower court's ruling.

BACKGROUND

On January 15, 2002, an animal control officer responded to a complaint about the condition of Rowe's residence and the numerous cats at the residence. The home contained garbage and unsanitary conditions and two animal control officers removed 49 cats that were in cages, closed rooms, and travel kennels. The officers noticed other feral cats in the garage and 17 of these cats were captured by animal control officers the following day. During the next two days, five more cats were seized.

The county mental health department was contacted to undertake a 72-hour evaluation of Rowe. To protect Rowe's dog while she was being evaluated, the dog was impounded.

On January 24, 2002, animal control cited Rowe because her dog did not have a license or a rabies certificate. Animal control also gave her a post-seizure hearing notice regarding her cats, which informed her that she could request a hearing. No hearing was requested. The tamer cats were taken to Lake Cat Rescue and the SPCA, while the other cats that were too ill or too wild to be adopted were euthanized.

In January of 2002, Lake County attempted to enter Rowe's residence to inspect it for building and code compliance. These attempts to enter were unsuccessful and Lake County therefore sent her a notice of violation and obtained a warrant for a property inspection. Lake County inspected the property on June 25, 2003, and determined that the residence was littered with bags of garbage and feces; all of the bedrooms contained cats. Another 15 cats were seized. Lake County posted a notice stating that the residence was unfit for human occupation.

On July 22, 2003, a county code enforcement officer noticed that Rowe had returned to the residence. The code enforcement officer signed a citizen's arrest form and an officer from the sheriff's department arrested Rowe. Rowe was booked at 9:06 p.m. and released at 10:45 p.m.

Rowe filed a complaint on February 24, 2003, and an amended complaint on October 9, 2003, against Lake County. The complaint stated it was â€