Fletcher v. Bantan
After Plaintiff Sandra Ashford failed to appear for her deposition, the trial court ordered her attorney, Appellant Freddie Fletcher, to pay discovery sanctions. In addition, the trial court assigned a discovery referee to attend all further depositions, with the parties to split the costs. Ashford objected to the referee on the ground that she could not afford the costs. In response, the court ordered Fletcher to pay his client's share of the costs. Fletcher alleged that he did not have sufficient resources to comply with the order and, the day before the Defendants were scheduled to depose Ashford, he substituted out of the case. Defendants proceeded with Ashford's deposition, which was attended by the discovery referee and Ashford's newly substituted counsel. Although Fletcher did not attend the deposition, the court ordered him to pay half the costs charged by the referee. Fletcher never paid the initial discovery sanction or his share of the referee costs. Several months later, the trial court sanctioned Fletcher pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 177.5[1] for failing to comply with its previous orders.
On appeal, Fletcher argues that the trial court's section 177.5 sanctions are invalid because: (1) the court had no authority to order Fletcher to pay the referee costs, and therefore had no authority to sanction him for failing to comply with that order, and (2) the court abused its discretion in awarding section 177.5 sanctions because it did not give Fletcher a reasonable amount of time to comply with the court's initial orders. We affirm.
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