Marriage of Wolf, Case No. A128509 (1st Dist., Div. 3 July 15, 2011) (Unpublished).
In this one, ex-wife was denied a request for attorney’s fees after a lower court found there were no reasonable grounds for her appeal. However, the lower court’s decision was without prejudice to her ability to renew the motion if the appellate court took a more generous view of the appeal. On review of the fee denial, the appellate court could not conclude wife lacked all reasonable grounds for pursuing the appeal, remanding to the lower court so it could entertain any renewed motion.
Marriage of Ebaugh, Case No. F059598 (5th Dist. July 15, 2011) (Unpublished).
Ex-husband, an OBGYN doctor, appealed both a 2007 fee award of $20,000 and a 2009 fee award of $100,000 in wife’s favor, based on either a needs basis (difference in income disparity) or as a sanctions for husband’s litigation tactics. (BLOG ASIDE–Husband incurred almost $193,000 in fees, and wife incurred over $143,000 in fees–ouch on the financial sting of divorce.) Husband took an appeal, though he did not do a complete job. The 2007 award was not reviewed, because husband failed to separately appeal it. (Sole Energy Co. v. Petrominerals Corp., 128 Cal.App.4th 212, 239 (2005).) Though the 2009 award was appealed, husband only challenged the needs-based basis for the award, not challenging the independent ground that the fee award was well based under the Family Code section 271 sanctions statute. This independent basis was reason enough to sustain the 2009 fee award.