Bad Faith Not Required, But Found and Sustained On Appeal.
The interesting thing about this blog is that we, the co-contributors, learn something each day.
Here is what we learned in the probate dispute of McDonnell v. Jarvis, Case No. H037704 (6th Dist. June 30, 2014) (unpublished), after we briefly summarize the case. The probate court ordered an attorney moving to change venue in a probate dispute to pay $4,812 because the motion was brought in bad faith and for purposes of delay. So far, so good. But we did not know if there are any special probate rules relating to change of venue, or whether normal civil procedure rules apply. We learned that normal CCP § 396b rules apply to venue change requests in trust proceedings. With that being said, prior inconsistent venue positions taken by the losing party and the fact bad faith in not an essential requirement under section 396b sealed the deal, with no abuse of discretion occurring under the circumstances. However, the attorney—not the party—had to bear the fee award based on the wording of the specific venue costs-shifting statute.
Posted with Blogsy