The Blank Legal Description Attachment

RECORD CHAIN

1. April 12, 2023 — the order gives address and parcel number, then points to Attachment A. The Notice and Order face page prints "4880 T ST, Sacramento, California" [M124] and "County Assessor's Parcel Number: 01101350100000" [M124], then directs the reader to "Attachment A for legal description of property" [M124]. The Proof of Service by Certified Mail [M131], the Proof of Service by First Class Mail [M132], and the Declaration of Posting Notice [M133] each list "Attachment A (legal property description)" [M131] as a component of the packet.
2. April 12, 2023 — Attachment A, the field left blank. The produced Attachment A repeats parcel No. 01101350100000 [M126] on its own line and leaves the "Legal Description:" [M126] field blank. The same page appears three times in the produced file, at pages 126, 546 and 557 [R.26-1965.2], blank in that field each time. Card 4 sets out the production-completeness baseline for reading that page as the City's record on this point: the case file produced on NextRequest 26-1965 [R.26-1965], which the City closed with "All responsive records have been provided." [R.26-1965.1]
3. May 8, 2023 — the recorded notice: parcel, address, owner, and nothing else under LEGAL DESCRIPTION. Page 122 of the produced case file [M122] shows two copies; the upper is a blank *SAMPLE*, and the lower, completed copy bears Peter Lemos's printed name and title [M122] over a blank signature line. The signed and notarized version recorded against the property is the County Recorder's copy, Doc No. 202305081060 [EX1]. In both the completed copy [M122] and the recorded version [EX1], the "LEGAL DESCRIPTION" [M122] block carries the parcel number, street address, owner name, and owner mailing-address line, and no separate legal-description text.

FULL CIRCLE

The City's first available answer, at full strength: the order face and the recorded notice both give the street address and the parcel number; a parcel number identifies one parcel and nothing else, so it is "a legal description sufficient for identification" [SCC.8.100.720(A)(2)]; the empty "Legal Description:" line on Attachment A is an unused field on a template.

The City's own pages answer that. The order face prints "County Assessor's Parcel Number: 01101350100000" [M124] and, on the next line, "(See Attachment A for legal description of property.)" [M124] — the City's own words treat the parcel number and the legal description as two different things, one on the face and one on the attachment. The attachment repeats "County Assessor's Parcel Number: 01101350100000" [M126] on one line and prints "Legal Description:" [M126] on the next, so the City's own form keeps them apart a second time. Both proofs of service [M131] and the posting declaration [M133] list "Attachment A (legal property description)" [M131] as a separate component of the packet. The code requires the street address and a legal description (SCC.8.100.720(A)(1)) — two things — and the City's form has a place for each. If the parcel number was the description, the City can say so in writing; the produced file holds no page that does.

The City's second available answer is that the County Recorder accepted the instrument.

Government Code 27201 [GC.27201] governs acceptance of an instrument for recording; it does not determine whether the description on it is sufficient. The recorded notice [EX1] carries under LEGAL DESCRIPTION the same two identifiers the order face carries, and nothing the attachment's empty field would have supplied.

What would defeat this card is an Attachment A for 4880 T Street with text in its "Legal Description:" field, served with the order or recorded with the notice, or a City page stating that the parcel number was the legal description it relied on. The file the City produced under Request 26-1965 and closed with "All responsive records have been provided." [R.26-1965.1] holds three copies of the attachment [R.26-1965.2], each with the field empty, and no such statement. Card 4 is the completeness baseline (what the file the City produced means, and does not mean).