$6,000 Aggregate Sanctions for Three Separate Discovery Motions Did Not Meet $5,000 Minimum Appellate Threshold.
In order to be appealable, an order imposing a monetary sanction must exceed $5,000. (Code Civ. Proc., § 904.1(a)(12).) However, what happens when a litigant appeals a $6,000 reduced sanctions award where the opponent filed three separate discovery motions to compel/sanctions requesting separate sanctions which would way exceed the $5,000 threshold amount?
Bayati v. Town Square M. Properties LLC, Case No. B245695 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Oct. 7, 2013) (unpublished) considered that circumstance and decided that the $6,000 sanctions should be allocated $2k/$2k/$2k for purposes of appealability, dismissing the appeal because the sanctions were below the $5,000 threshold.
What happened specifically was this: moving party brought three separate motions to compel relating to distinct discovery requests, seeking respective sanctions of $3,667.50, $4,772.50, and $4,805 for noncompliant discovery responses. In the end, the lower court granted all three motions, ordering service of discovery responses and imposing sanctions on the eventually-appealing party “in the reduced sum of $6,000.”
Appealing party argued an aggregation theory based on the $6,000 total sanctions award, while the opponent argued that basically the trial court granted sanctions of only $2,000 per motion so the $5,000 appealability threshold was not satisfied.
Opponent got the better side of the argument. Although indicating it was not necessarily fond of “aggregation” dicta in Champion/L.B.S. Associates Development Co. v. E-Z Serve Petroleum Marketing, Inc., 15 Cal.App.4th 56, 59-60 (1993), the Bayati court found that the sanctions before it were based on distinct misconduct rather than unified conduct found persuasive in Champion. Because the amount of sanctions per motion did not reach the $5,000 appeal threshold, appeal dismissed.