CAROL FIORENTINO v. CITY OF FRESNO
Public Resources Code Sec. 21167.4 requires dismissal of a CEQA petition on motion of the court or an interested party where plaintiffs do not file a request for hearing within 90 days of filing their petition even if the petition is filed prior to motion to dismiss. Denial of motion for relief from dismissal of CEQA petition based on Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 473 was not an abuse of discretion where evidence showed that while plaintiffs' attorney miscalendared filing deadline, error was discovered in time to place petition in court deposit box or file it by fax before 5 p.m. on last day, which would have made filing timely, and where attorney's alleged error in believing that filing after 90 day limit but before filing of motion to dismiss would be sufficient was not the cause of missing deadline since attorney would have filed on time but for erroneous belief that documents could not be filed after 4 p.m., an error that trial court reasonably found to be inexcusable given professional standard of care.
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