Brady v. Superior Court

We must determine here whether the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction in punishing petitioner for contempt. The court based its order on the ground that the occupancy of petitioner’s home by his son and a rent-paying friend destroyed the home’s status as a “single family dwelling” under the zoning ordinance of Atherton, California. As we shall point out, we do not believe the bare and undefined reference of the ordinance to such a dwelling sustained the court's elaborate definition of it or the court’s conviction of contempt.

We describe the factual background which led to the court’s…