Failure To Provide Adequate Record In The Form Of Fee Hearing Transcript And Subsequent Minute Order Was Fatal.
We have posted many, many times about the necessity for an adequate record when one perfects an appeal. If you do not, you cannot get beyond the batter’s box if the appellate court is the analogy of a baseball game.
That sad lesson was learned by the in pro per plaintiff in Flowers v. Hudson, Case Nos. B277687/B281706 (2d Dist., Div. 1 June 6, 2018) (unpublished).
Defendants/attorneys won a SLAPP, and won and recovered mandatory fees to the tune of $23,175 (only $250 less than the full request). Appellant’s appeal of the fee order lost because she failed to provide an adequate record—no hearing transcript of the fee hearing and no subsequent minute order detailing what happened. That made it impossible to determine if the fee award exceeded the bounds of reason. (Martin v. Inland Empire Utilities Agency, 198 Cal.App.4th 611, 633 (2011).) Fee award affirmed.