Opinion ID: 2336375
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: Appeals of Vexatious Litigant Ruling

Text: While pursuing his effort to disqualify Judge Kakita, Respondent filed three different notices of appeal of the vexatious litigant ruling with the Court of Appeals. On September 9, 1993, defendant Hollingsworth moved for consolidation of the appeals and dismissal. Respondent's opposition to the motion to dismiss was voluminous but largely unresponsive. On December 2, 1993, the Court of Appeals ordered Respondent and his counsel to show cause why the appeals should not be dismissed and why they should not be sanctioned. In the Court's opinion, in Say & Say v. Castellano (1994) 22 Cal.App.4th 88 [27 Cal.Rptr.2d 270], two of the three appeals were dismissed because there were no appealable orders or judgments rendered or entered within the scope of the notices of appeal filed by Respondent [8] . The Court found that there was an improper purpose for filing the notices: [P]laintiffs typically file these notices of appeal from nonappealable orders immediately after the superior court indicates it is considering a course of action, and then contend that the court lacks jurisdiction to take the action considered due to the pending appeal or appeals. ( Id. at pp. 92-93 [27 Cal.Rptr.2d 270].) As to Respondent's opposition to the motion to dismiss, the Court indicated that only one paragraph in its 131-page brief dealt with the appealability of the orders and one page discussed the issues raised in the dismissal motion. Instead, the Court found the opposition attempted to obscure the real issues and was wholly frivolous. In light of Respondent's failure to change his conduct after the imposition of lesser sanction awards, the Court imposed on Respondent a total of $50,000 in sanctions, all but $4,000 of which was to be paid to the Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, and the balance divided among the defendants/movants [9] . Respondent has not reported these sanctions to the State Bar. On February 14, 1994, Respondent filed a petition for rehearing of Say & Say v. Castellano, supra, 22 Cal.App.4th 88 [27 Cal.Rptr.2d 270], along with two other Court of Appeal orders. In his pleading, Respondent accused the justices of having colluded with and been corrupted by large law firms, and of discriminating against him as a minority. The petition for hearing was denied without comment. ( Say & Say v. Castellano, supra, 22 Cal.App.4th 88, 95 [27 Cal.Rptr.2d 270].)