Defendant Prevailed, After Acrimonious Email Battle Involving His Wife Who Was The Losing Plaintiff’s Former Wife.
Plaintiff, Mr. Grier, former husband of Nancy Truong, filed a civil harassment petition against Ms. Truong’s current husband, Mr. Baturyn. Needless to say, emotions ran high. Even though plaintiff obtained some discovery and an initial TRO, he lost the war, with the trial court denying an injunction as to current husband. Current husband moved for and obtained, with a small cut, most of his attorney’s fees of $17,250, given that Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6(r) allows a prevailing party in such a proceeding to be awarded discretionary court costs and attorney’s fees.
Plaintiff’s appeal in Grier v. Baturyn, Case No. A141381 (1st Dist., Div. 2 June 30, 2015) (unpublished) did not change the result. Although griping about discovery abuses, the lower court denied the civil harassment injunction request and never imposed any discovery-related sanctions against current husband, the prevailing party. Not enough to overturn the fee award in this one, according to the appellate court.