Sparrow

BACKGROUND

The case was initiated in February 2019.1 It was ordered dismissed with prejudice two-and-a-half years later, at an unreported case management conference held virtually on August 18, 2021, two days before the scheduled trial date (which the court also ordered vacated). None of the parties appeared at that terminating case management conference—neither appellants nor respondent. When it ordered the case dismissed, the court also imposed $900 in sanctions against the plaintiffs. The stated basis for both the dismissal with prejudice and the sanctions award was plaintiffs’ failure to appear at the August 18, 2021 hearing and the hearing immediately preceding it, held a week earlier on August 11, 2021.2 The relevant history begins a bit earlier, on August 6, 2021, when a settlement conference was held by BlueJeans videoconference in Department 301 at 2:00 p.m., presided over by Judge Jacobs. All parties failed to appear at that settlement conference. The record of the August 6 settlement conference consists of a file-endorsed document entitled “Judge’s Memo To Clerk, Civil Pre-Trial Settlement Conference (PTSC).” The document indicates that a further case management…