Valley Gardens Property Investments v. City of Fountain Valley CA4/3

FACTS

On September 4, 2020, Valley Gardens electronically filed its petition in the superior court, seeking to vacate a conditional use permit granted by respondent the City of Fountain Valley (City) to allow real party in interest Khosro Habibi (Habibi) to modify an existing car wash. The petition requested City be directed to comply with CEQA. On December 9, 2020, City and Habibi jointly filed a motion to dismiss the petition under section 21167.4 because Valley Gardens failed to request a hearing within 90 days of filing its petition. The next day, Valley Gardens filed its request to set a hearing. The court granted the motion to dismiss and ordered the petition dismissed with prejudice. A few days after the dismissal order was filed, Valley Gardens moved to vacate the dismissal under Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b). The accompanying memorandum of points and authorities asserted relief should be granted because Valley Gardens’ counsel, Kevin Monson, made an honest mistake of law that resulted in “a calendaring error.” Counsel’s declaration submitted in support of the motion stated he used an electronic filing vendor to submit the petition to the superior court on

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