Friends of Oceano Dunes, Inc. v. San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District

Opinion

YEGAN, J.

Consistent with the laudable goal of safeguarding the public health, the trial court “stretched” to find a dictionary definition of the word “contrivance” to describe a state park. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “ ‘A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; It is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.’ ” (Almar Limited v County of Ventura (1997) 56 Cal.App.4th 105, 106 [65 Cal.Rptr.2d 70] [quoting].) This appeal “turns” on the meaning of the word “contrivance.”…