Sixth District Looks At All the Relevant Circumstances Under Family Code Section 2030.
Although we might think that this next lesson would be self evident, “litigating just to litigate” may get you into trouble. It also may have a spillover effect as far as influencing trial and appellate courts’ thought processes when it comes to evaluating fee requests. In the next case, a fee denial was based in part upon the litigant’s frivolous litigation, which showed there was no reasonable need of a fee award to level the playing field to compensate wife for perceived meritless conduct.
In Marriage of Loumena, Case No. H033141 (6th Dist. Sept. 22, 2009) (unpublished), wife was miffed when the family law judge denied her request for a “needs” based fee award under Family Code section 2030. (She probably should have quit long ago—earlier, she was ordered to pay husband $12,382.64 as reimbursement and ordered to pay husband over $100,000 in fees and costs as sanctions under Family Code section 271.)
Despite the fact husband only earned about $51,000 a year (not the “well over six figures” wife claimed), wife did appeal notwithstanding the lower court had denied the fee request by stating “you can’t just litigate for litigation sake.”
Wife’s appeal was unsuccessful. “While [wife] may have fewer financial resources than [husband], the trial could have concluded that her continuous pursuit of frivolous litigation against [husband] established that she did not have a reasonable need for an award of fees and costs.” (Slip Opn., at p. 3.)