Opinion ID: 1118958
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: request for attorney fees on appeal

Text: WFSE requests this court to order the college to pay WFSE's attorney fees and costs on appeal. Although WFSE bases its request for attorney fees on appeal on the same grounds as it asks the court to uphold the HEP Board's 1979 award, these requests comprise distinct issues. This court's power to impose attorney fees and costs as a sanction for bringing a frivolous appeal is pursuant to RAP 18.9, rather than under RCW 41.56.140 (as set forth in Board of Trustees ). The standard for determining whether an appeal warrants imposition of sanctions pursuant to RAP 18.9(a) was recently set forth by this court as follows: In determining whether an appeal is frivolous and was, therefore, brought for the purpose of delay, justifying the imposition of terms and compensatory damages,  we are guided by the following considerations: (1) A civil appellant has a right to appeal under RAP 2.2; (2) all doubts as to whether the appeal is frivolous should be resolved in favor of the appellant; (3) the record should be considered as a whole; (4) an appeal that is affirmed simply because the arguments are rejected is not frivolous; (5) an appeal is frivolous if there are no debatable issues upon which reasonable minds might differ, and it is so totally devoid of merit that there was no reasonable possibility of reversal. Streater v. White, 26 Wn. App. 430, 434-35, 613 P.2d 187 (1980); see also Millers Cas. Ins. Co. v. Briggs, 100 Wn.2d 9, 15, 665 P.2d 887 (1983). Boyles v. Department of Retirement Sys., 105 Wn.2d 499, 509, 716 P.2d 869 (1986) (Utter, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part). [8] The parties have been at odds over this issue for over 10 years. They have been before the HEP Board twice and before this court twice, over what amounts to less than 20 working hours for three employees. Such an obdurate course of behavior is directly at odds with the best interests of the employees, the college, and the public. In the course of this long-lived squabble, however, the college did advance a meritorious argument on the issue of mootness in the course of an unfair labor practice proceeding, hitherto unresolved by this court. We cannot say that there were no debatable issues upon which reasonable minds might differ. Boyles, at 509. Accordingly, WFSE's request for attorney fees on appeal is denied. We reverse the trial court's order holding the unfair labor practice decision moot and its remand to the HEP Board on the issue of attorney fees. The order of the HEP Board finding the college guilty of an unfair labor practice is affirmed, and we uphold the HEP Board's award of attorney fees to WFSE. DOLLIVER, C.J., and BRACHTENBACH, DORE, PEARSON, ANDERSEN, CALLOW, GOODLOE, and DURHAM, JJ., concur.