Court Awards Her $28,233 in Suit Against L.A. : T-Shirt Vendor Pulls Off a Legal Victory

Julie Chalmers has chalked up another victory in her legal battle over selling King Tut T-shirts outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art seven years ago.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the City of Los Angeles must pay $28,233 in damages to Chalmers, a former Kansas City nurse who now works in Santa Cruz as a color consultant.

But Chalmers may not be collecting the money any time soon, because the city is thinking about going another round with her in the U.S. Supreme Court, Deputy City Atty. Marcia H. Kamine said.

Cashing In on Craze

Chalmers had thought that she did all the right things when she launched an enterprise to cash in on the craze that surrounded the traveling King Tutankhamen Exhibit in 1978.

She got the idea while visiting the same exhibit of Egyptian artifacts in Chicago, where she saw a vendor hawking T-shirts outside.

Chalmers made telephone calls from Kansas City to various Los Angeles city authorities to find out what she needed to do to get permission to sell King Tut T-shirts from a pushcart on Wilshire Boulevard outside the museum.

Court records show that when she arrived in Los Angeles, she was issued a seller’s permit by the State Board of Equalization and received a business tax certificate from the city, along with a list of the relevant ordinances.

Two of the ordinances appeared to be contradictory, Chalmers said. One prohibited all vending activity in a broad area of the city; the other allowed vendors to sell items from a pushcart as long as they changed locations every 10 minutes.

Chalmers asked for a clarification. City officials assured her she could legally sell the T-shirts. But Los Angeles police halted her sales and threatened her with arrest if she persisted.

She sued the city and, in 1982, a Los Angeles federal court jury awarded her $15,723 for lost profits and $12,510 for deprivation of due process.

In a 19-page opinion written for the 9th Circuit panel, Judge Otto R. Skopil stated that the jury apparently believed Chalmers testimony about “the anguish, embarrassment, anxiety and humiliation” she suffered. He also noted that Chalmers “did everything possible to obtain clarification of the vending laws.”

Skopil pointed out that the city had been aware of the inconsistency in the municipal ordinances and that two state courts had enjoined the city from enforcing them.

“It (the city) nevertheless failed to take corrective action,” Skopil wrote in the opinion, “and, despite clear awareness of the ordinances’ infirmities, the Los Angeles Police Department undertook enforcement activities against Chalmers, who had been told by a city employee that her activities were permitted.”

Unanimous Opinion

Skopil was joined in the unanimous opinion by Judges Clifford Wallace and Thomas Tang.

“Julie is very happy with winning,” said her attorney, Jon D. Murdock of Santa Monica, “and we both hope the city will concede the unfairness of what they have done and not take it on up to the Supreme Court.”

In the meantime, Chalmers said, she still has a “few thousand King Tut T-shirts in my garage, in case somebody would like to buy one as a collector’s item.”