Opinion ID: 2008593
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Amount of Sanctions Imposed and the Joint and Several Apportionment

Text: Even if we were able to ascertain on this record that this was an appropriate case for sanctions, i.e., that the trial court properly exercised its discretion in determining that sanctions were warranted, a remand would still be necessary because we cannot discern how the court exercised its discretion in determining which party to sanction for which paper. The purposes of Rule 11 are to discourage frivolous or dilatory litigation, to punish abusive litigants, and to compensate opposing parties whose expenses have been driven up or who have been otherwise prejudiced. See Simpson, supra, 522 A.2d at 884; SANCTIONS supra at 235-237; Advisory Committee Note, supra, 97 F.R.D. at 198-199. Accordingly, to fulfill the purpose of the rule, the trial court must specifically and precisely decide who should be sanctioned for a given paper, i.e., the signer, the represented party, or both. See Nelken, Sanctions under Amended Federal Rule 11  Some Chilling Problems in the Struggle between Compensation and Punishment, 74 GEO. L.J. 1313, 1329 (1986). On this record, absent any indication of the trial court's reasoning, it is impossible for us to determine whether or how the court exercised its discretion in assessing sanctions jointly and severally against Montgomery and his clients. The amount of the sanction is also subject to question. Paragraph 24 of appellee's motion for sanctions, cited in the trial court's order, claimed that over the course of the entire litigation appellee's counsel expended 49.5 hours at an hourly rate of $150.00 in attorneys' time and 80 hours at an hourly rate of $60.00 to pursue this claim. Counsel's fee thus amounted to $12,225.00. The trial court, however, awarded $7,905.00 in sanctions. Given these disparate figures and the lack of any explanation from the trial court as to how it calculated the sum of $7,905.00, we cannot meaningfully review the court's ruling. See Williams v. Ray, 563 A.2d 1077, 1080 (D.C.1989); SANCTIONS, supra at 301-302 (citing cases). Compare Frazier v. Franklin Investment Co., 468 A.2d 1338, 1341-1342 (D.C.1983) (affirming fee award after trial court fully considered counsel's extensive submissions, broke down the hours claimed, and considered what work was necessary to perform and what was valueless).