Discovery, Judgment Enforcement, Sanctions: Lower Court’s Failure To Include Discovery Sanctions In Post-Trial Judgment Was Not Erroneous

Discovery Sanctions Was An Independent Monetary Judgment Subject to Post-Judgment Enforcement.

            In Marriage of Bush, Case No. G061202 (4^th Dist., Div. 3 June 15, 2023) (unpublished), a family law judge issued $3,635 in discovery sanctions against wife, but the judge stayed any payment until a trial determined who owed what.  However, the monetary sanction was not included in the post-trial judgment, which wife claimed was error.  Not so, said the 4/3 DCA in an opinion authored by Justice Delaney.  The monetary sanction was an independent monetary judgment subject to execution, although it was stayed for a while.  (Newland v. Superior Court, 40 Cal.App.4^th 608, 615 (1995).)  Although there might be some logistical benefit to including such an award in the pre-trial judgment (Constellation-F, LLC v. World Trading 23, Inc., 45 Cal.App.5^th 22, 31 (2020)), it was not error to omit the sanctions award from the post-trial judgment because the monetary sanctions judgment was independently enforceable.