## Facts

- In December 2009, Jhonrico Carrnshimba, through MyCaregiver Cooperative, Inc., opened a facility dispensing medical marijuana in the City of Monterey.
- Carrnshimba applied for a city business license shortly before incorporation but did not disclose that the business would operate as a medical-marijuana dispensary, despite city requests for clarification.
- After the City discovered the dispensary activity, the Assistant City Manager informed Carrnshimba that dispensaries were not a permitted use under the City Code, denied the business license application, and ordered the operation to cease.
- On January 19, 2010, the City adopted an interim ordinance imposing a citywide moratorium temporarily prohibiting dispensaries.
- The City filed a public-nuisance abatement action, obtained a preliminary injunction, and later won summary judgment.
- The trial court entered a permanent injunction prohibiting appellants from operating a dispensary while the moratorium remained in effect.

## Issues

1. Whether enforcing the dispensary moratorium against an operation that began before the ordinance was adopted was an unlawful retroactive application.
2. Whether operating a dispensary in violation of the City’s zoning and business-license requirements constituted a public nuisance subject to injunctive abatement.
3. Whether state medical-marijuana statutes preempted, invalidated, or otherwise constrained the City’s zoning-based prohibition and nuisance enforcement against dispensaries.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment and permanent injunction.
- The court held the moratorium was not unlawfully applied retroactively because appellants had no vested right to continue an unpermitted use.
- The court held appellants’ operation constituted a public nuisance where it violated local zoning restrictions and operated without a valid business license after denial.
- The court rejected claims that the City’s land-use and nuisance enforcement was invalid or preempted by state medical-marijuana law in this context.

## Legal Principles

- A municipality may enforce zoning and business-license requirements to prohibit land uses not identified as permitted uses under its code.
- An operator generally cannot claim vested rights or protected nonconforming-use status for a use that was unlawful from the outset.
- Local governments may treat zoning and licensing violations as public nuisances subject to abatement by injunction when authorized by local law.
- State medical-marijuana statutes do not necessarily preempt local land-use and nuisance actions aimed at prohibiting or abating dispensary operations that violate municipal zoning and licensing rules.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Monterey’s injunction barring a medical-marijuana dispensary because the use was not permitted under the City’s zoning scheme, the operator lacked a valid business license, and the operator could not avoid enforcement by labeling the moratorium retroactive or the local action preempted by state medical-marijuana statutes.


City of Monterey v. Carrnshimba, 215 Cal. App. 4th 1068 (Ct. App. 2013)