However, No Additional Appellate Sanctions Imposed.
In Horner v. Judges’ Retirement System, Case No. C084619 (3d Dist. Jan. 25, 2019) (unpublished), the Third District affirmed a $17,820 sanctions award imposed under CCP § 128.7, observing in the process that no showing of bad faith (only legal frivolousness) is necessary under this sanctions statute versus the bad faith showing required under § 128.5. However, it refused to impose additional appellate sanctions, based on this reasoning: “The easy case is where there is evidence the appeal was filed for an improper motive. The more difficult case is to distinguish misguided lawyering from an egregious misuse of the appellate process because we certainly do not want to punish a lawyer for full-throated advocacy on behalf of his or her client by raising a novel theory or nudging the development of the law” (Slip Opn. at p. 7), with there being enough advocacy to justify the result.