City of Carpinteria's Demurrer Against SPBC's Complaint Overruled, Which Means the Case Will Continue

Save the Plastic Bag Coalition  filed a Complaint against the City of Carpinteria alleging that Carpinteria's inclusion of restaurants in its ordinance was preempted by the California Retail Food Code.  (Click here for more information.) Carpinteria then filed a Demurrer, which if successful would have ended the whole case because a demurrer  raises the question of whether or not the Complaint has a judicially recognizable cause of action based on the limited information before the Court  (i.e. what's in the Complaint).

In its Final Decision, the court overruled the Demurrer and concluded that plaintiff could have sufficiently alleged a cause of action.

This does not mean that SPBC's restaurant claim has merit, the court simply found that the claim could potentially have merit and more information was needed before a dispositive ruling could be made.  The court was clear that the scope of the opinion is very limited.