Appellate Jurisdiction to Hear Fee Award Challenge Is Likely Not Cognizable
In our category “Cases: Appealability,” we have reviewed numerous decisions from state appellate courts indicating that subsequent orders awarding attorney’s fees must be separately appealed where there is no mention of fees in a prior merits judgment. Averbuch v. Strekovsky, Case No. B201764 (2d Dist., Div. 8 Dec. 2, 2008) (unpublished) reinforces the teaching of those decisions. There, Father failed to appeal a subsequent fee order, never even mentioning it in the notice of appeal from a prior judgment that did not deal with fees at all. Result: the challenge of the fees award was not cognizable and was not entertained by the appellate court.