$28,500 Fee Request By Mother Found Unreasonable, With Lower Court’s Order Of $3,500 Under Family Code Sections 2030/2032 Being Sustained On Appeal.
Mother, in Marriage of Morcos-Jewgieniew and Jewgieniew, Case No. G050727 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Aug. 1, 2016) (unpublished), requested $28,500 in fees based on “need” under Family Code sections 2030 and 2032, with the family law determining the request was unreasonable and only awarding $3,500 to mother. This prompted an appeal.
The result stood, in a 3-0 opinion authored by Justice Thompson.
Mother argued that a statement of decision was mandated for the fees award, but the appellate court decided this was not the case—with appellant misreading the 4/3 DCA’s decision in In re Marriage of Shimkus, 244 Cal.App.4th 1262, 1278 (2016) (which applies only to a different provision where a statement of decision, if requested, happens to be required).
On the merits of the fee award, the family law judge was only required to consider relevant “needs-based” factors, not all of the ones listed under section 4320 (because some of them relate only to spousal support). Because the family matter was not complex and rather relatively simple, the lower court did not err in finding the requested fees to be unreasonable in nature and in awarding much less to mother.