Tuesday, February 25, 2020

In re Marriage of Deal (Cal. Ct. App. - Feb. 24, 2020)

No one wants an ex-spouse like this one.  Fortunately, he gets declared a vexatious litigant.  But he still runs up legal fees and makes things a total hassle for the other side (as well as the judiciary).

Sadly, there's only so much we can do.  At least he won't be able to file many future lawsuits.  Even though there's little we can do about all the old ones.

Justice Jackson also gives you a little flavor of what this guy's briefs look like.  Here's a snippet from his opening brief:

“[D]espite my sincere prayer for relief by the Court, I am also praying for a higher authority to cause a well timed avalanche that kills the majority of a certain judges family, or a tree branch that breaks the neck of the young boy in the front yard, or a drunk driver tee bones the right side door at high speed while the daughter is returning from her senior prom. Each of these would be, of course, ‘accidents’ and can cause a great deal of grief, but never cause the misery that knowledge that the injuries were caused intentionally by a well connected attorney, [name], his confederates, [names], caused to me as they harmed my children for their own benefits.”

Yeah.  Stuff like that will make the judiciary well-disposed in your favor.  Express wishes of physical harm to innocent family members of judges and lawyers on the other side always work well.

I also thought it nice (and appropriate) that Justice Jackson omitted the relevant names of the people to whom Mr. Deal wished harm.  Indeed, I wondered whether it wouldn't even be more appropriate to not publish the opinion.  Since it's not on a crucial issue of precedent or public concern.  And because I'm not so sure I want to give Mr. Deal the publicity (or infamy) that he appears to seek.