(DOWNLOAD) "In Re Marriage Of Daniels" by First Appellate District, Division Five Court of Appeal of California # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: In Re Marriage Of Daniels
- Author : First Appellate District, Division Five Court of Appeal of California
- Release Date : January 27, 1993
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 66 KB
Description
Appellant Carolyn S. Daniels contends the trial court wrongly ordered, under Civil Code section 4370.6, that she pay certain attorney fees incurred by her former husband in the amount of $3,700. The order to pay these fees, "in the nature of a sanction" under this section, was entered after Carolyn's counsel failed to return numerous phone calls from opposing counsel and wrongly caused a default judgment to be entered, without attempting to inform opposing counsel that she would seek such a judgment, or conferring with opposing counsel on the outstanding issues in this divorce case. As is explicitly allowed by the applicable law, the order imposed such fees, not on Carolyn's counsel for these derelictions in her professional capacity, but on Carolyn. On this record, there was no abuse of the trial court's discretion; the law now explicitly provides that a party or client may be ordered to pay fees in the nature of a sanction for the obstreperous actions of counsel. (See In re Marriage of Green (1992) 6 Cal. App. 4th 584, 592 [7 Cal. Rptr. 2d 872]; cf. In re Marriage of Quinlan (1989) 209 Cal. App. 3d 1417, 1422 [257 Cal. Rptr. 850].) The trial court's order recites the derelictions by Carolyn's counsel as the rationale for imposition of such sanctions, after consideration, inter alia, of counsel's argument that their imposition on Carolyn would impose an undue financial hardship on Carolyn. The trial court properly rejected that argument and ordered Carolyn to pay the sanctions. (See In re Marriage of Quay (1993) 18 Cal. App. 4th 961, 969-971 [22 Cal. Rptr. 2d 537].)