Marriage of De Monbrun, Case No. B236130 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Oct. 3, 2012) (unpublished) involved a husband’s challenge to a $10,000 sanction awarded to wife under Family Code section 271. Husband did well to appeal, gaining a reversal on appeal.
Section 271 is not meant to incorporate the “English rule” into dissolution actions, but is really a sanctions provision to punish a party’s conduct to frustrate settlement and increase the costs of litigation by the party’s course of conduct during a dissolution case. Here, husband took a reasonable, but ultimately unmeritorious, position. That did not justify a sanction award. Beyond that, husband was ill such that some of his actions were excusable also on that basis. Finally, husband was impecunious–his monthly after-tax income exceeded his monthly expenses by $548 such that it would take him another 1 1/2 years to pay off the sanctions alone (not to mention other awards that were affirmed). Given these circumstances, the sanctions award had to be reversed.
Giles Corey being pressed with heavy stones after refusing to enter a plea during Salem Witch Trials..