Second District, Division 8 Rejects Challenges to Fee Award.
In Barba v. Anderson-Mota, Case No. B206213 (2d Dist., Div. 8 June 24, 2009) (unpublished), plaintiff’s attorney was two hours late in attending a noticed deposition of his client, after leaving a message he would be an hour late and then being inaccessible for any follow-up conversations. Although plaintiff showed up, defense counsel terminated the deposition after an hour, causing inconvenience for attorneys representing other parties who also showed up for the deposition. Defense counsel asked for a voluntary reimbursement of $1,700 to cover some of his time and hard costs such as the court reporter and Spanish language interpreter, threatening a sanctions motion if this was not paid. No response. The trial court awarded combined sanctions of $6,477.86 against plaintiff’s attorney, divided among four set of inconvenienced counsel.
Plaintiff’s attorney appealed, and did not fare well.
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in sanctioning the attorney because “defense counsel was not obligated to wait around under [the] circumstances and continue to bill time to their clients.”
Aggrieved attorney argued a written statement of decision was required, but that contention was rejected when it came to discovery sanctions. (See California Shellfish, Inc. v. United Shellfish Co., 56 Cal.App.4th 16, 25-26 (1997).)
Sanctions are also appropriate on the motion of other parties attending the deposition, Code Civ. Proc., § 2025.450(c)(2), with formal or informal joinders in the motion adequately preserving the issue and avoiding unnecessary duplication.
Moving party’s request for voluntary compensation adequately satisfied the meet and confer requirement.
So, in the end, plaintiff’s attorney had to absorb the sanctions, with the defendants also winning their appellate costs for prevailing on appeal.