Court Opinion

ID: 9747827
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:37:33.156558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:27.663099
License: Public Domain

CROSBY, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
As pleaded, this is an egregious case; my colleagues recognize that. But with today’s companion decision affirming the domestic relations court (with which I am compelled to agree), the curious result is that there is no remedy in either that court or the civil law court against the person bankrolling the frivolous custody litigation, Blossom Rosen. This is contrary to the maxim that there is a remedy for every wrong (Civ. Code, § 3523) and, I think, simply incorrect. The civil action lies.
Taking the complaint as a whole, plaintiff has stated a cause of action for common barratry. It is of no moment that no present cause of action is so *41yclept; a demurrer looks to the ultimate facts alleged without concern for labels. Civil pleading is not a torts examination, and the majority should not flunk plaintiff merely because his attorneys did not correctly title the wrong they pleaded (“A rose by any other name . . -”).1
Also, the rule is that plaintiff’s factual allegations must be presumed true and liberally construed upon review of a demurrer sustained without leave to amend. My colleagues do the opposite in considering the case against Blossom Rosen when, at a minimum, we should reverse to allow plaintiff to amend to specifically allege barratry.
Penal Code section 158 provides, “Common barratry is the practice of exciting groundless judicial proceedings . . . .” The misdemeanor is rarely prosecuted (Rubin v. Green (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1187, 1190 [17 Cal.Rptr.2d 828, 847 P.2d 1044]), but it has happened. (See People v. Sanford (1988) 202 Cal.App.3d Supp. 1 [249 Cal.Rptr. 279.]) In Rubin the Supreme Court recently noted that the unlawful solicitation of litigation by attorneys is a modem descendant of barratry, a crime recognized in the common law. (Rubin v. Green, supra, at p. 1190.) That is not quite the same as saying the ancestor is dead, though, and it is a backhanded recognition of the historical existence of the tort in this state’s jurisprudence.
Rubin is of further interest because the Supreme Court found the attorney solicitation branch of the barratry family tree should not flower with the fruit of malicious prosecution actions against lawyers by third parties. Would the same conclusion pertain here? I think not. There was a plethora of other potential remedies in Rubin: “[G]iven the regulatory and prosecutorial sanctions available to remedy attorney solicitation, together with those available to litigants within the scope of the predicate action itself, the utility of a proceeding such as this one is marginal.” (4 Cal.4th at p. 1198.) By contrast, today’s opinions deny any present remedy against Blossom Rosen for having wilfully cultivated vexatious litigation.2
Another concern of the Rubin court was the Malthusian multiplication of litigation via malicious prosecution actions: “A continuation of this action *42itself would add yet another layer of litigation. And that will not be the end of it.” (4 Cal.4th at p. 1199.) Should the malicious prosecution action fail, the remedy will be “nothing less than another malicious prosecution action, this one against the plaintiff by defendants.” (Ibid.) Is that a problem here? Hardly.
Few parents have the time, money, and desire to assist their children in successive malicious proceedings against former spouses. And the law carries its own protection: “No person can be convicted of common barratry except upon proof that he has excited suits or proceedings at law in at least three instances, and with a corrupt or malicious intent to vex and annoy.” (Pen. Code, § 159.) This combination of intent and circumstance will, thankfully, not appear with any frequency in garden-variety domestic cases.3 For example, parents assisting with legal expenses in routine dissolutions would rarely be subject to suit because they could not be shown to entertain the requisite vexatious intent nor would they often be willing to finance the same or similar misbegotten proceeding three or more times. But, as pleaded, this case is the exception, not the rule. There is no reason plaintiff should not be permitted to proceed against the allegedly wicked former mother-in-law on a cause of action in common barratry.
In the main, I agree with my colleagues’ analysis and conclusions with respect to the other defendants. But I would reverse as to Blossom Rosen.
A petition for a rehearing was denied October 28, 1993. Crosby, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied December 30, 1993.

My colleagues’ refusal to consider whether plaintiff has pleaded a cause of action for barratry may leave him free to file another suit on that ground, or perhaps not. That is a question for another day, and it will surely come. Justice and judicial economy cry out for us to deal with the question now. This dispute—or some aspect of it, domestic or civil—returns to our monthly docket with the grinding regularity of a recurring bad dream. For our sake, as well as the superior court’s OSC departments, we should act to staunch this litigation now. If not, filie et mére have a license to abuse the system indefinitely.

Assuming there is anything to the allegations in the complaint, Rosen could be prosecuted. But, while attorneys soliciting via “cappers” and “runners” often do draw vigorous prosecution, I know of no case in which a former in-law has been charged with maintaining frivolous and vexatious domestic relations litigation. And the district attorney would probably conclude *42the courts can easily deal with rare cases of that ilk. If today's decisions are the best we can do, that determination might not be warranted.

While barratry has received little mention in California civil cases (Rubin v. Green, supra, 4 Cal.4th 1187 is one; for another rare example see Lucas v. Pico (1880) 55 Cal. 126, 128), the elements of the complementary tort would presumably mirror those of the crime.