Lawyer Sanctioned $10K for Recycled Brief and 'Salad Dressing' Request for Sanctions
A California lawyer has been sanctioned $10,000 for requesting a time extension for appeal based on “complex issues raised” and then recycling an old brief that mistakenly referred to facts in a prior case.
California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal sanctioned Orange lawyer Timothy Donahue in an opinion that knocked his “boilerplate brief” and criticized his recycled request for sanctions against the opposing lawyers. The Recorder and the Metropolitan News-Enterprise have stories.
“Sanctions are serious business,” the opinion (PDF) said. “They deserve more thought than the choice of a salad dressing. ‘I’ll have the sanctions, please. No, on second thought, bring me the balsamic; I’m trying to lose a few pounds.’ … A request for sanctions should be reserved for serious violations of the standard of practice, not used as a bullying tactic.”
The court called Donahue’s conduct on appeal “inappropriate in nearly every respect.” When the appeals court notified Donahue it was considering sanctioning him, he asserted that the notice must have been a mistake. When Donahue was ordered to appear to address the possible sanctions, he sent instead a lawyer who did not know sanctions were being considered.
In the appeal, Donahue was seeking to uphold a $30 million default judgment for failure to repay loans. But the appeals opinion by Judge William Bedsworth said a defendant’s default is not an “unalloyed gift” for the lawyer representing the plaintiff. The complaint should be amended if it does not match the judgment sought, and the plaintiff’s lawyer should prove up the damages, the court said. And the trial court should act as a gatekeeper to ensure the appropriate claims get through.
