It's always bad to lose an appeal. You've wasted time, money and effort.
But it can be worse. As it is here. When both the client and the lawyer get sanctioned for a frivolous appeal.
Not for a token $5,000 or something like that, either. The Court of Appeal imposes a sanction of $46,000 in attorney's fees, payable to the prevailing party. Plus, for good measure, another $10,000 payable to the clerk of the court.
Oh, yeah. And the Court of Appeal orders the sanctions reported to the State Bar.
Yet even that's not all.
Justice Dhanidina also goes out of his way to slam the arguments on appeal. And not with just your ordinary slams on their merits, either.
Check out, for example, these choice quotes:
"MMG and its counsel are equally culpable for pursuing this
frivolous and bigotry-infused appeal. MMG’s counsel had
numerous opportunities to dismiss the appeal and to withdraw
its baseless claims, but chose not to. Instead, MMG’s counsel
persisted in its efforts without any legal or factual support, filing
wholly deficient briefs and nonsensical requests for judicial
notice, supported by declarations from Malek and his counsel. As
stated above, this court is not the forum for MMG or its counsel
to rant about conspiracies or their politics. This court has wasted its time and resources considering MMG’s appeal, which has only
served as a drain on the judicial system and the taxpayers of this
state."
"The Court
of Appeal is not an appropriate forum to peddle far-fetched
conspiracy theories, laced with sexism and homophobia, disguised as a legitimate appeal."
Los Angeles attorney Jeffrey Konvitz is the recipient of these choice words. Not his best appeal, I'm sure.
