However, The Underlying Fact Were Fun.
Marriage of Raghuraman, Case No. G049489 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 8, 2015) (unpublished), in a clinical way, reiterates that an appeal will not get very far unless an adequate record is presented on appeal. Without that, the appellate court cannot even send a brief back to another party and ask the offending party to correct an offense such as failure to provide adequate record cites—although specific citations are required in appellate briefs.
In essence, husband challenged a “needs based” Family Code section 2030 award of $133,000 in fees to wife and a “sanctions” Family Code sections 271/1101 award of $50,000 to wife.
However, husband failed to provide an adequate record on appeal. It was not that he did not provide specific record references, which he didn’t, but he didn’t have an adequate record—which doomed his challenges on appeal.
Nonetheless, the unpublished opinion makes interesting reading because it was authored by Acting Presiding Justice Bedsworth for a 3-0 panel. For example, he observed that “[appellant’s] brief uses the literary device of an extended metaphor in which the dissolution litigation is likened to a raft trip that becomes a harrowing experience as the raft encounters increasingly more turbulent waters.”
Udo Keppler, artist. 1913. Library of Congress.
The brief also summarized anecdotes from the course of the litigation (husband’s view, of course), including (1) wife’s attorney refusing to accommodate a last-minute business trip husband had to make to Poland, insisting a deposition go forward yet sending an associate to “tread water,” (2) an unexplained bomb scare, and (3) allusions to refusals by wife’s counsel to meet and confer. The bottom line was that the inadequate record was an insurmountable hurdle, with the appellate court presuming that a trial transcript (which was not provided) would present evidence supporting each of the trial court’s challenged decisions. However, because wife only filed a four-sentence respondent’s brief, each side was ordered to bear their own costs on appeal.
