Payment By Appellant Did Not Waive Appeal Rights; Trial Court Implicitly Extended Fee Motion Filing Deadline Due To Docketing Issues.
In Skytte v. Skytte, Case No. G064930 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 26, 2026) (unpublished), a probate dispute among certain family members may be approaching a close after an award of appellate attorney’s fees of $63,958.75 to one prevailing party respondent.
After lots of wrangling, a lower court awarded the indicated fee award to one respondent and against one appellant. Appellant appealed on numerous grounds, but they were unsuccessful.
Respondent argued the appeal should be dismissed because appellant paid the fee award, but this did not resonate because it was paid under compulsion and there was no agreement to waive an appeal. Appellant argued that the award was based on an untimely fee motion, but the appellate court found that the lower court implicitly extended the filing deadline based on a docketing snafu. The excessiveness argument did not win, because there was adequate substantiation on the lodestar request, and the lower court did lower the request by $2,460 to arrive at its award. The generalized excessiveness fee arguments did not prevail because specialized arguments were necessary. (Lunada Biomedical v. Nunez, 230 Cal.App.4th 459, 488(2014).)