Opinion ID: 162210
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to strike appellee’s motion to dismiss

Text: As a preliminary matter, we address Ms. Norris’s motion to strike Mr. Davis’s motion to dismiss the appeal and her request for attorney fees and 2 Mr. Davis has not appealed from any of these rulings. -7- costs as a sanction. A review of the record shows that Ms. Norris filed her appellate brief on June 1, 2000, certifying that she mailed two copies of the brief to Mr. Davis on May 18, 2000. When this court had not received Mr. Davis’s response brief by July 1, 2000, the clerk notified him on July 31, 2000, that no brief had been received and that he had ten days in which to file one. Mr. Davis did not timely file a response brief. Instead, on July 31, 2000, he filed a motion to dismiss the appeal. In the motion, Mr. Davis asserted that the appeal should be dismissed because he had filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings. Ms. Norris responded that she had never been included on a list of bankruptcy creditors as a party with claims against Mr. Davis or notice of the bankruptcy, but agreed that federal law required that the appeal be stayed pending termination of the bankruptcy proceedings. Accordingly, we abated the appeal on December 15, 2000, ordering the parties to submit status reports on the bankruptcy proceedings by February 15, 2001. Mr. Davis did not comply with this order. Ms. Norris submitted a timely report after discovering that the bankruptcy court had dismissed Mr. Davis’s bankruptcy case on June 5, 2000 , in response to his June 2, 2000 application for voluntary dismissal. The record shows that the bankruptcy court gave Mr. Davis written notice of that dismissal by mailing a notice to his home address on June 8, 2000. -8- Copies of Ms. Norris’s February status report were sent to Mr. Davis at two addresses--his home address and a Mailboxes, Etc. facility where he purportedly received his business mail. Ms. Norris informed Mr. Davis in a cover letter attached to the status report that she would be filing a motion to strike the motion to dismiss and for sanctions the next week. After this court received the status report, the clerk’s office entered an order on April 30, 2001, reactivating the appeal and informing Mr. Davis that his response brief was due May 30, 2001. That notice was sent to the Mailboxes, Etc. address. On May 4, 2001, Ms. Norris filed her motion to strike Mr. Davis’s motion to dismiss, requesting this court disallow the filing of a response brief, to enter judgment in her favor on the appeal, and to award sanctions in the form of attorney fees and costs in the amount of $4,146.64 for having to respond to the motion. Ms. Norris’s counsel submitted itemized bills and affidavits. Ms. Norris mailed a copy of the motion both to Mr. Davis’s Mailboxes, Etc. address and to his home address on May 3, 2001. Mr. Davis did not respond to the motion. Ms. Norris’s motion is well-taken. The record clearly shows that Mr. Davis filed the motion to dismiss the appeal in this court after he knew that the bankruptcy court had already dismissed his bankruptcy case at his request. Mr. Davis therefore made material and fraudulent misrepresentations to this court. -9- Mr. Davis attempts to excuse this misrepresentation by arguing that he signed the motion to dismiss on May 28, 2000, before his bankruptcy proceedings were dismissed. However, the motion to dismiss is clearly dated “this 23rd day of July, 2000” above his signature and was filed in this court on July 31, 2000. Mr. Davis’s motion to dismiss is stricken as frivolous, and sanctions in the amount of $4,146.64 are awarded to Ms. Norris. See Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper , 447 U.S. 752, 767 (1980) (noting court’s inherent power to assess attorney fees as sanction against party who has conducted litigation in bad faith); Christensen v. Ward , 916 F.2d 1462, 1469 (10th Cir. 1990) (recognizing court of appeals’ “inherent power to impose sanctions that are necessary . . . to deter frivolous filings”).