Suing City to Enforce Laws Fairly

Our community was forced to sue Jack In The Box and the City of San Diego to enforce its own municipal code fairly. The code clearly did not allow a drive-through window to be included in a reconstruction.  For details of the actions leading to the suit, watch this video. The City Attorney wrote that  "the process used to issue the permits was inconsistent with the City’s Land Development Code" (Lee Burdick, Mayor's Chief of Staff, August 1, 2013). The Mayor and city staff repeatedly promised the community that the problem would be corrected. The community relied upon these promises right up until the day before the deadline for a legal challenge expired, at which point the Mayor's Chief of Staff advised the community that Jack in the Box was too far along in the construction. She said that the company would likely sue the City if they stopped the development and simply assured the community that they would make sure it didn't happen again.

Legal precedent ("tolling") allows for extending the statute of limitations on suing when a government agency can be shown to have misrepresented its actions. The community chose to sue, raised the funds, and sued the city and Jack in the Box. After 1-1/2 years and four delays, the judge upheld the city's late-filing argument and dismissed the suit without addressing the circumstances that led to the late filing. This, in addition to the judge having improperly considered information outside of the motion, gives us confidence that the judge's ruling will be reversed on appeal and the suit will go forward to trial.

Help us raise $10,000, which will be matched by a supportive donor. These funds, along with those funds raised earlier, will be sufficient to allow the appeal and eventual trial to go forward.

Web page: Care About North Park
Facebook page: Do the Right Thing, Jack