Second District, Division 2 Reinforces Message Sent in Prior Posts.
In our category: “Cases: Appealability,” we have stressed an important message that emerges from California state court cases: notwithstanding some nuances in unusual situations, litigants wishing to challenge attorney’s fees awards should always appeal the postjudgment fees award in order to preserve appellate rights. The next case is a recent illustration of how failing to do so resulted in the loss of appellate jurisdiction over the challenged fees award.
Colachis v. Salazar, Case No. B205057 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Feb. 3, 2009) (unpublished) involved an in pro per plaintiff who was hit with an unfavorable $58,104 attorney’s fees award after he was defensed on his complaint and suffered an adverse $16,050.24 judgment on a cross-complaint. Plaintiff was served with notice of entry of judgment and also lost a motion to vacate. Later, plaintiff was served with a subsequent ruling on the adverse fees award. Plaintiff then appealed, but only “from a judgment and order denying motion to vacate judgment.” However, on appeal, plaintiff raised challenges to the fee order.
Plaintiff’s failure to expressly appeal the postjudgment fees order was fatal.
Citing Colony Hill v. Chamaty, 143 Cal.App.4th 1156, 1171 (2006), the appellate panel gave short shrift to any entertainment of error with respect to the fees order: “But appellant’s failure to appeal from the postjudgment order granting respondents’ motion for attorney fees has deprived us of jurisdiction to consider this issue. ‘An appellate court has no jurisdiction to review an award of attorney fees made after entry of the judgment, unless the order is separately appealed. [W]here several judgments and/or orders occurring close in time are separately appealable (e.g., judgment and order awarding attorney fees), each appealable judgment and order must be expressly specified—in either a single notice of appeal or multiple notices of appeal—in order to be reviewable on appeal.’” (Slip Opns., at pp. 6-7.) Because plaintiff’s notice of appeal did not mention the fees order, he was doomed and did not get “past the plate” for purposes of appellate review.