Sanctions dodged

Counsel admonished, but not sanctioned (by 2/4) in this unpub: 

The court may impose sanctions, as relevant here, for taking a frivolous appeal or appealing solely to cause delay or for “committing any other unreasonable violation” of the California Rules of Court. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.276(a)(1), (4).) It is undisputed that the Staubers’ opening brief violated rule 8.204(a)(1)(C), as it failed to “support any reference to a matter in the record by a citation to the volume and page number of the record where the matter appears.” Rather than proper citations to the clerk’s or reporter’s transcripts, the Staubers cited to lines in their Notice of Designation of Record, confusingly designated as “AA” and “RA.”’ The brief contained no explanation of this designation, and none of the citations included a specific page number.

We issued an order to show cause and the Staubers filed a response, explaining that they did not receive the clerk’s transcript in time to cite to it in their opening brief. The Staubers also did not seek to re-file their opening brief with correct citations once they received the record or after plaintiff raised an objection. While this conduct was certainly ill-advised and in clear violation of the rules, resulting in extra work for both the court and plaintiff’s counsel, we do not find it so egregious as to justify sanctions. (See Huschke v. Slater (2008) 168 Cal. App. 4th 1153, 1162 [“not every violation of a procedural rule is properly sanctionable”].)

We agree with plaintiff that the Staubers violated the court rules and principles of appellate review by failing to provide “a summary of significant facts” in their opening brief. [] The Staubers’ response during oral argument that a more fulsome discussion of the evidence was not needed because they challenged the validity of the contracts is not well-taken. The Staubers raised multiple substantial evidence arguments on appeal and were therefore required to provide a complete summary of the relevant evidence. We admonish them, and their counsel, for failing to do so. However, we do not find that arguments raised were frivolous and we decline to impose sanctions under these circumstances.