Opinion ID: 198942
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion for Fees and Costs

Text: 12 Appellee A.J. Bennazar-Zequeira filed a Surreply And/Or Motion Under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 seeking attorneys fees and costs against appellants for filing this appeal against him. As the bankruptcy court noted in its opinion denying sanctions against Bennazar and others, appellants' claim against Bennazar was based solely on his involvement in the preparation of a single motion, which the bankruptcy court granted in part. See Bankr. Op. at 5, 7. The bankruptcy court specifically found that Bennazar engaged in no conduct that might warrant sanctions under Rule 11. See id. at 5. 13 Appellants have nevertheless dragged attorney Bennazar through a round of appeals before the district court and now into this Court, at a cost of considerable time and money to Bennazar as well as to the courts. The only conceivable motive for such inclusion, it seems to us, is the continued harassment of Bennazar (along with the other appellees). This conclusion is strengthened by the frivolity of the present appeal, which is based solely on a challenge to the denial of sanctions by the bankruptcy court. Although we do not find a case from this circuit specifically dealing with the denial of a sanctions motion under the Bankruptcy Rules and Rule of Civil Procedure 11, the existing case law is such that appellants should have known that their chances of success were infinitesimal. See Cunningham, 119 S. Ct. at 1917 (order imposing sanctions on an attorney pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(4) was not an appealable final decision, even though the attorney was no longer involved in the case); Kouri-Perez, 187 F.3d at 14 (finding sanctions order pursuant to district court's inherent powers not immediately appealable); Appeal of Licht & Semonoff, 796 F.2d at 573 (finding sanctions pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(g) not immediately appealable). Although we do not suggest that every long shot appeal is frivolous, the particular history of this case is such that we can infer that the likelihood of failure was easily outweighed by the desire to harass the appellees, and the limited involvement of attorney Bennazar in the underlying proceedings heightens the frivolity and vexatious nature of the appeal as to him in particular. Under the circumstances, we think that Bennazar's unopposed motion for attorney's fees and costs is justified, and we award him $5,000 in attorney's fees, as well as costs under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38.