Family Law: Ex-Husband’s Denial Of Fees Based On Lack Of Jurisdiction Was Correct Where Fee Request Not Made In Responsive Pleadings Or Requested In A Motion To Leave To Amend Pleadings At The Time Of Trial

Make A Motion To Amend Pleadings, Or Get The Result Here!

            Marriage of Fader, Case No. B296972 (2d Dist., Div. 5 Sept. 24, 2020) (unpublished) is a situation teaching that a litigant should make a motion to amend deficient pleadings in order to preserve an attorney’s fee request.    If not, the consequences are dire:  both the trial and appellate court will sustain a lower court’s conclusion it had no jurisdiction to award fees.

            What happened here was that ex-husband was denied a fees request where he did not ask them in responsive pleadings to a dissolution petition, but only asked for such a recovery at trial.  The fatal flaw was that husband did not ask for permission to amend pleadings to assert a fees request.  That failure was preclusive, because it supported the family judge’s reasoning that he had no jurisdiction to award fees absent a pleadings request or request to amend.