Marriage of Rice and Eaton, No. C066860 (3d Dist. Apr. 4, 2012) (partially published; 271 discussion unpublished).
Although the published part is an interesting discussion of the impact of Department of Child Support Services contempt proceedings on wife’s OSC to obtain enforcement of delinquent child support payments, the unpublished part relating to fees reversed a $1,000 award of fees as sanction under Family Code section 271 against wife. After all, she obtained a reversal of the lower court’s ruling on the DCSS contempt proceedings impact. Furthermore, the sanctions could not be ordered as an offset to the prior child support order because it could not be retroactively modified when it came to accrued arrearages/interest thereon. (In re Marriage of Hamer, 81 Cal.App.4th 712, 722 (2000).)
Marriage of Shubin, Case No. C067326 (3d Dist. Apr. 4, 2012) (unpublished).
Wife appealed a trial court order directing her to pay $10,000 in fees to husband as sanctions pursuant to section 271. She elected to proceed on a clerk’s transcript, known as a judgment roll appeal. The problem with using this procedure is that the evidence is conclusively presumed as sufficient to support the decision below. Without the reporter’s transcript of the hearing at which 271 fees were imposed, it was impossible to conclude there was an abuse of discretion in this one.