Residents of Beverly Glen, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles

This is an action by an incorporated group of property owners seeking to invalidate a conditional use permit granted by defendant City of Los Angeles 1 to defendant U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers, Inc., for the development of a planned residential community in the Santa Monica Mountains. The complaint, which is in a single count, alleged that the permit was invalid because of alleged violations of the applicable ordinances and charter provisions under which it purported to be issued and also because of an alleged invalidity of the underlying ordinance itself. The prayer was as follows:

Thereafter plaintiff filed an “At-Issue Memorandum and Certificate of Readiness,” seeking to bring on for trial their prayer for declaratory relief as to the validity of the ordinance. On motion of defendants, the trial court (Judge Wright) made an order striking the memorandum.

The plaintiff has appealed both from the “judgment” denying a writ of mandate and from the order striking its memorandum for setting. We issued an order to show cause why the two appeals should not be dismissed as being from non-appealable orders. That issue has been briefed and argued. For the reasons set out below, we…