Family Code Section 271 Sanctioning Authority Justified $3,000 Fee Award Against Ex-Wife.
Acting Justice Bedsworth, on behalf of a 3-0 panel, affirmed a $3,000 award against ex-wife based on Family Code section 271. That section imposes a “minimum level of professionalism and cooperation” to effectuate settlement in the family law area and authorizes sanctions in the form of paying for the other side’s attorney’s fees even though there is no actual injury. (In re Marriage of Davenport, 194 Cal.App.4th 1507, 1524 (2011).) After all, ex-wife sent lots of emails to ex-husband and her attorney, calling husband’s new wife “an ilegal whore,” told him he could “go to hell” if he thought she would reach a pretrial settlement, and warned him “I will pay every attorney in town and go broke before I give you a single dime.” She was also evasive and contradictory in her trial testimony. Little wonder the 271 award was affirmed in Marriage of Mamdani and Pillet, Case No. G043554 (4th Dist., Div. 3 July 26, 2011) (unpublished).
Winning Litigant Unsuccessfully Sought More SLAPP Fees For Prevailing Below.
In this one, Justice Ikola, for a unanimous panel, affirmed a lower court’s decision to award $6,729 in fees and no costs (out of a requested $22,838.50 in fees and $1,654.24) to Orange County Board of Supervisors after it SLAPPed a mandate petition brought by a taxi company in a dispute over losing a taxi concession for the John Wayne Airport to a competitor. The costs were properly not awarded because Board was exempt from certain costs under Government Code section 6103, and it cited no authority that expenses like mileage/parking for attorneys, messenger costs, and document copy costs were recoverable under the SLAPP fee-shifting statute. As far as the fee award, the trial court was found to be in a better position to gauge reasonableness of hours, hourly rate, and work allocation for purposes of fashioning an award. The decision sustaining the award is A White and Yellow Cab v. Orange County Bd. of Supervisors, Case No. G043209 (4th Dist., Div. 3 July 27, 2011) (unpublished).