California OAH special education order · August 29, 2019
Order Denying Request for Judicial Notice Without Prejudice
OAH Case No. 2019030607 · ALJ Theresa Ravandi
OAH denied without prejudice Student's request for judicial notice of district website documents and two superior court orders, because Student attached no copies and did not show relevance to hearing issues.
This case went to decision
Student v. Los Angeles Unified School District: Los Angeles Unified prevails on all claims; no reimbursement owed for Westmark School tuition or a private psychological evaluation. (2019)
Summary
Student asked OAH to take judicial notice of 13 documents from the websites of Los Angeles Unified and Reseda Charter High School, and of two Los Angeles County Superior Court orders, one finding it was in Student's best interest to attend Westmark School and one granting Mother sole legal custody. Neither Los Angeles nor Reseda responded. OAH denied the request without prejudice. Student did not attach copies of the items, gave only a description of the court orders, and made no showing of how they related to the hearing issues. OAH also noted that evidence questions are best decided by the ALJ at the due process hearing.
Why it matters
A party asking OAH to take judicial notice must attach the actual documents and explain how they relate to the hearing issues. Even then, OAH may leave evidence questions to the hearing ALJ, so families should plan to offer key documents as exhibits at hearing.
Key authority cited
- Evid. Code, § 452
- Evid. Code, § 453, subd. (b)
- Gov. Code, § 11515
- Gov. Code, § 11513, subd. (c)
- Evid. Code, § 210
- Aquila, Inc. v. Superior Court (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 556
Topics
Full text of the order
Published text of the OAH order. Page headers and numbers from the original PDF have been dropped.
BEFORE THE
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE MATTER OF:
PARENT ON BEHALF OF STUDENT,
v.
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT AND RESEDA
CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL.
OAH CASE NUMBER 2019030607
ORDER DENYING REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE WITHOUT
PREJUDICE
On August 20, 2019, Student filed with the Office of Administrative Hearings, often called OAH, a request for judicial notice pursuant to California Evidence Code Section 452, subdivisions (b), (c), and (d). Student requests that OAH take judicial notice of 13 exhibits he intends to include in his evidence binder for the due process hearing.
Student asserts he obtained these documents from the Los Angeles Unified School District’s and Reseda Charter High School’s websites and that they are public records of official acts published on a government website and thus subject to judicial notice pursuant to section 452 of the Evidence Code, subdivisions (b) and (c).
Student also seeks judicial notice of two Los Angeles County Superior Court orders from 2016 and 2017 pursuant to section 452 of the Evidence Code, subdivision (d). Student represents that the 2016 order found that it was in his best interest to attend Westmark School and that the 2017 order granted Mother sole legal custody.
OAH has not received any response from Los Angeles or Reseda.
APPLICABLE LAW
Judicial notice is generally called official notice when taken by an administrative tribunal. (See Gov. Code, § 11515.) No specific statute or regulation governs the taking of official notice in special education due process proceedings. For guidance in such situations, OAH often looks to the California Evidence Code. Section 452 of that Code allows, in part, the taking of judicial notice of regulations and legislative enactments issued by any public entity, official acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of any state, and the records of any court. (Evid. Code, § 452, subds. (b), (c), & (d).) Section 452, subdivision (h) further allows judicial notice of, “Facts and propositions that are not reasonably subject to dispute and are capable of immediate and accurate determination by resort to sources of reasonably indisputable accuracy.”
(Evid. Code, § 452, subd. (h).) The party seeking judicial notice has the burden of furnishing sufficient information to enable the court to take judicial notice of the requested matters. (Evid. Code, § 453, subd. (b).)
Evidence Code Section 350 states, “No evidence is admissible except relevant evidence.” Relevant evidence is defined as evidence “having any tendency in reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action.” (Evid. Code, § 210.) Further, “any relevant evidence shall be admitted if it is the sort of evidence on which responsible persons are accustomed to rely in the conduct of serious affairs, regardless of the existence of any common law or statutory rule which might make improper the admission of the evidence over objection in civil actions.”
(Govt. Code §11513, subd. (c).) Although a court may judicially notice a variety of matters, only relevant material may be noticed. (Aquila, Inc. v. Superior Court (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 556, 569.)
DISCUSSION
Student has failed to meet his burden of providing sufficient evidence of the matters he seeks to have judicially noticed. He has not attached any copies of the referenced items, and has only provided a description of the two court orders. Student has failed to provide any showing as to the importance or relevance to the matters to any of the issues at hearing. Furthermore, evidentiary requests are best determined by the administrative law judge at the time of the due process hearing. Accordingly, Student’s request for judicial notice is denied without prejudice.
ORDER
Student’s request for judicial notice is denied without prejudice.
DATED: August 29, 2019 Theresa Ravandi Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings