Ex-Wife Cannot Surmount Abuse of Discretion Review Standard.
Family Code section 271, which we have explored many times before, is a statutory provision that allows family judges to sanction parties or litigants in family law proceedings where they fail to promote settlement or fail to cooperate so as to drive up costs. No actual injury is required, although the judge must determine that the party to be sanctioned has an ability to pay. Most importantly on appeal, lower courts’ 271 decisions are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard, focusing on whether substantial evidence supports a particular decision. (Marriage of Feldman, 153 Cal.App.4th 1470, 1478-1479 (2007).)
Ex-wife in Marriage of Korn, Case No. A128506 (1st Dist., Div. 1 Nov. 24, 2010) (unpublished) appealed a $2,500 sanctions award that was imposed pursuant to section 271. Not a good idea under the facts.
The parties had agreed to use an attorney to determine the community interest in ex-wife’s Roth IRA fund, which the attorney did. However, ex-wife did not contact the analyzing attorney with any concerns, failed to cooperate to meet a court-set deadline for valuation of the fund, and forced ex-husband to essentially confirm the attorney’s analysis and divide up the fund. Given these facts, the appellate court found no basis to overturn the award under the deferential review standard.
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