Res Judicata Ground For Denial Was Not Borne Out Because Earlier Three Denials Were Without Prejudice.
Marriage of Uriostegui and Maffei, Case No. B289948 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Dec. 23, 2019) (unpublished) demonstrates that sometimes the fourth time is the charm.
What happened in this dissolution case is that a family law commissioner, on three prior occasions, denied ex-wife’s “needs-based” request for attorney’s fees primarily to prosecute an ultimately successful appeal based on deficient financial information. In response to a fourth request for fees, a different judge interpreted the commissioner’s third ruling as being with prejudice such that res judicata required a denial of the fourth request.
The 2/7 DCA reversed. Res judicata did not apply because the commissioner never indicated that the earlier denials were with prejudice, such that the request could be renewed. Also, res judicata usually does not apply to earlier rulings in an action, unless they were appealable orders and never appealed from—not the situation in this matter.