Appeal By Ex-Wife Found Frivolous, Which Carried $10,000 More In Sanctions.
Marriage of Wintermute and Soltan, Case No. G052397 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Apr. 9, 2018) (unpublished) was a situation where ex-wife appealed a Family Code section 271 sanction of $25,000 after an earlier appellate opinion disagreed with a critical assertion of ex-wife that a settlement was not global in nature, a ruling which became law of the case. The section 271 sanction was for ex-wife’s failure to do a tardy dismissal as was promised to be done. (The lower court actually disallowed $4,000 of the original sanctions request because the other side failed to file acceptable declarations during a few prior go-arounds.) The appellate court affirmed the sanctions award based on the abuse of discretion standard, finding that ex-wife “was lucky to get away with the modesty penalty of $25,000.” The other side moved to recoup fees for a frivolous appeal, with the 4/3 DCA panel—in an opinion authored by Acting Presiding Justice Bedsworth—ordering ex-wife and her counsel to pay $5,000 to the other side and to pay $5,000 to the clerk of the court for some of the expenses for internal court time in working up the appeal.