Rare SLAPP Fee Award Against Defendant Affirmed And Appellate Fees Assessed For Frivolous Appeal.
On March 13, 2011, we did a post on City of Alhambra v. D’Ausilio, where a defendant losing a SLAPP motion was hit with attorney’s fees for a frivolous motion as well as appellate fees for bringing a frivolous appeal of the lower court’s SLAPP ruling. The D’Ausilio decision was certified for publication on March 29, 2011.
BLOG OBSERVATION–This decision can be read as indicating that appellate fees for affirming a frivolous SLAPP fee award below must satisfy the frivolous standard on appeal (similar to the one used at the trial level). However, one could certainly argue that the fees are awardable if the respondent shows that the frivolous lower court ruling was proper–not having to show the appeal itself was frivolous. We predict there will be more jurisprudence on this issue.