No Substantial Irregularity Found By Appellate Court.
In Slesinger Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company, Case No. B259686 (2d Dist., Div. 4 Dec. 4, 2015) (unpublished), plaintiff’s case was dismissed based on a terminating sanction for using a private investigator to obtain confidential defense documents from a dumpster at a facility operated by Disney’s document disposal contractor. The trial judge later awarded a costs award of $369,033.56 to Disney (through a minute order sent to both sides) and sent a judgment nunc pro tunc to defense counsel, although the judgment apparently was never served on plaintiff. Defense counsel then sought to renew the judgment before it ran out almost ten years later, a request opposed by plaintiff on irregularity grounds. The trial judge renewed the judgment.
Plaintiff’s challenge to the renewed judgment was unsuccessful on appeal. It is not unusual for a costs award to be later inserted in a judgment. Even if the better practice was to serve the judgment on plaintiff, and have the clerk not delay issuance of the judgment as occurred here, plaintiff did have notice of the minute order awarding costs—good enough for purposes of showing no prejudice.