Family Law: Sixth District Finds No Abuse Of Discretion In Trial Court’s Imposition Of $10,000 In Family Code Section 271 Sanctions Against Wife For Failure To Comply With Court Orders

The Record “Unerringly” Demonstrated That Wife’s Refusal To Obey Court Orders Over A More Than Seven-Year Period Was Unreasonable And Unnecessarily Prolonged And Increased The Cost Of The Litigation.

            In Marriage of Butler, Case No. H049004 (6^th Dist., May 9, 2022) (unpublished), husband and wife entered into a stipulation which was entered as a court order in 2012 while their dissolution action was pending.  Pursuant to the stipulation, husband quitclaimed the parties’ residence to wife, but if wife failed to remove husband’s name from the loan on the residence, she was to quitclaim it back to the community for the sale of the residence.  Wife failed to comply with this stipulation and order, and failed to comply with new orders issued in 2016 that required her to deed the property back to the community and required that the residence be sold.  Finally, in 2021, after additional litigation, the trial court sanctioned wife $10,000 under Family Code section 271 for her “willful failure to comply” with orders, appointed the clerk of the court to sign the deed back to the community, and ordered the property sold. 

            With regard to the sanctions, wife argued on appeal that the trial court failed to consider the parties’ income, assets, and liabilities in imposing the sanctions against her, that her due process rights had been violated, and that the sanctions were not supported by evidence that she had unreasonably failed to comply with the trial court’s orders.  The Sixth District found no abuse of discretion and affirmed.  Family Code section 271 allows the trial court to impose sanctions as long as the award does not impose an unreasonable financial burden.  Here, the trial court ordered that the sanctions be paid out of the proceeds from the sale of the residence – which it reasonably could have concluded would not impose an unreasonable financial burden on wife.  The panel further found no basis to wife’s claim of due process violations as she had received adequate notice of husband’s sanctions request and had an opportunity to be heard on the issue.  Finally, as to wife’s claim that the sanctions were not supported by evidence, the Sixth District found the record “unerringly” demonstrated that wife’s refusal to obey court orders over a more than seven-year period was unreasonable and unnecessarily prolonged and increased the cost of the litigation.