Decision Also Has A Colorful Quote On A Confusing Appellant’s Brief.
If a motion for reconsideration is meritless, frivolous, or filed in bad faith, the trial court may order sanctions against the movant pursuant to section 128.7 of the Code of Civil Procedure. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1008, subd. (d); Young v. Rosenthal (1989) 212 Cal.App.3d 96, 123; In re Marriage of Green (1989) 213 Cal.App.3d 14, 26.) A lower court in Banks v. Mastorakos, Case No. B309937 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Aug. 16, 2022) (unpublished) imposed $960 in sanctions against plaintiff for bringing a frivolous motion for reconsideration after an adverse summary grant, a result affirmed on appeal because the reconsideration motion did not mention any new facts and cited improper statutes/ordinances.
BLOG OBSERVATION: We also enjoyed Justice Ashmann-Gerst’s observation about the quality of appellant’s briefing on appeal, which should remind us all of how real care needs to be devoted to developing arguments on appeal or whether to appeal in the first place: “On appeal, Banks raises a confusing miasma of arguments. As another court observed of a similarly perplexing opening brief, ‘this document is strongly reminiscent of those magazine puzzles of yesteryear where the reader was challenged to “guess what is wrong with this picture.”’ (People v. Dougherty (1982) 138 Cal.App.3d 278, 280.)”