Sharif v. The Regents of the University of Cal. CA2/2


Filed 12/6/21 Sharif v. The Regents of the University of Cal. CA2/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115. IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO RANA SHARIF, B308941 Plaintiff and Appellant, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 19STCV32356) v. THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Defendant and Respondent. APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Barbara Ann Meiers, Judge. Affirmed in part and reversed in part with directions. The Cook Law Firm, Philip E. Cook, Brian J. Wright; Public Counsel, Jill Thompson and Mallory Sepler-King for Plaintiff and Appellant. McCune & Harber, Stephen M. Harber and Amy Arseneaux Evenstad for Defendant and Respondent. Plaintiff Rana Sharif was a doctoral candidate at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After she was disqualified from her doctoral program for failing to make progress toward her Ph.D. and for an unsatisfactory dissertation, she sued defendant Regents of the University of California (the Regents) for discrimination, breach of an implied-in-fact contract, promissory estoppel, and violation of her due process rights. The Regents demurred to Sharif’s complaint on the grounds that she had failed to exhaust her administrative and judicial remedies and otherwise failed to state any cause of action. The trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend, and this appeal followed. Although we agree that the trial court properly sustained the demurrer as to Sharif’s discrimination and contract-based causes of action, Sharif may proceed on her due process and declaratory relief causes of action. BACKGROUND I. Sharif is disqualified as a Ph.D. candidate. According to the allegations of the operative pleading, Sharif is a woman of color, a mother of young children, the caretaker of a disabled parent, and a primary source of income for her family. In 2006, Sharif began pursuing her Ph.D. in gender studies at UCLA, advancing to a doctoral candidacy in 2012. She gave birth in 2009 and again in 2014, and her oldest child has a congenital condition that required three surgeries and ongoing care. UCLA requires its departments to set a normative time to degree, meaning the number of quarters in which students should complete the requirements for a doctorate. The Department of Gender Studies anticipates it will take six years to 2 achieve a Ph.D., although leaves of absence are permitted. Despite this normative-time-to-degree policy, Sharif alleged that the department has never enforced it against anyone except her, although former and current graduate students have taken more than six years to complete their degrees. In September 2016, Sharif’s supervisory doctoral committee set September 15, 2017 as the deadline for Sharif to complete her dissertation. Sharif alleged that the committee did not tell her that failure …

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