Husband And Wife Had Litigated Themselves Into Financial Ruin, Trial Court Observed.
In Thacher v. Thacher, Case No. B279985 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 3, 2019) (unpublished), the trial judge observed that husband and wife had litigated themselves into financial ruin in the dissolution case. After all, they had engaged in a 38-day trial on dueling domestic violence protective petitions, followed by a 6-day bench trial on dissolution issues and several hours on fees/sanctions requests. Wife had spent $1.2 million on the case, while husband had expended $603,000 (using three attorneys, including mother—who was a family law specialist representing him free at some later phases of the case). Eventually, husband was ordered to pay needs-based fees to wife in the sum of $87,500 and also ordered to pay $46,000 in 271 sanctions to wife. He appealed aspects of the prior dissolution order as well as the fees/sanctions orders.
The 2/2 DCA affirmed. The prior dissolution judgment was independently appealable even though issues such as spousal support and fees had not been adjudicated; husband’s failure to appeal the dissolution judgment prevented any challenges to it. With respect to fees and sanctions, husband could show no abuse of discretion in the orders. He had three times the base annual salary as compared to wife’s salary, and he had money to pay the orders based upon his half of sales proceeds from a sale of the family house and funds leftover in trust accounts for his girls’ counsel. The record did show that 271 sanctionable conduct did take place, not to mention that wife was sanctioned for some conduct (with that amount offsetting to arrive at the net aggregate award).