Plaintiff’s Failure To File A Notice Of Appeal On The PostJudgment Award Deprived Appellate Court Of Jurisdiction.
In Nash v. Romano, Case No. B303765 (2d Dist., Div. 8 April 12, 2021) (unpublished), plaintiff tenant sued her landlords after she broke her ankle while stepping on an allegedly unstable backyard paver. The jury returned verdict in favor of landlords and the trial court entered a defense judgment – prompting an appeal by plaintiff. Meanwhile, landlords move postjudgment for costs, which included roughly $33,000 in expert witness fees. After the trial court denied plaintiff’s motion to tax costs, she included arguments in her appellate briefs that the trial court erred in awarding landlords with expert fees pursuant to Code Civ. Proc. § 998.
The 2/8 DCA considered plaintiff’s appeal of the judgment and affirmed. However, the panel declined to consider plaintiff’s arguments concerning the expert fees due to lack of jurisdiction. Plaintiff did not include the expert fees in her notice of appeal, which indicated only that she was appealing a judgment after jury trial, and did not separately appeal the postjudgment order or award. (Pfeifer v. John Crane, Inc., 220 Cal.App.4th 1270, 1316 (2013) [discussed in our November 4, 2013 post].)
Plaintiff’s argument that she could not file a notice of appeal challenging the award of expert fees because the trial court never filed an order awarding the fees was of no avail as there is nothing to challenge on appeal until such an order has been entered.
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