No Fee Motion Papers Provided By Appellant.
This case again reminds everyone to make sure an adequate record is prepared in a fee proceeding and to make sure prior merits appeals are preserved if the only grounds for reversal is that the merits ruling was erroneous.
Defendant licensed contractor was found liable for professional negligence, misrepresentation, and breach of contract to a plaintiff, resulting in a net award against defendant in the amount of $388,325.47. The lower court denied the defense motions for new trial and judgment NOV, later awarding $1,458,101.25 in attorney’s fees to plaintiff and against defendant.
Defendant lost his appeal of the fee order in Tessie Cleveland Community Services Corp. v. Loghmani, Case No. B251944 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 29, 2015) (unpublished).
The first problem with the appeal was the failure to provide an adequate record: no motion papers were provided, retarding meaningful review.
The second defect was that defendants’ prior appeal of the new trial/judgment NOV motion denials was dismissed because the appeal was untimely. That put the kibosh to any argument that the fee ruling was infirm because the merits ruling was subject to reversal.
Ouch!