Moofly Productions v. Favila

The case was filed in 2013. In November 2016, the court granted defendants terminating sanctions on Moofly’s claims, finding that Moofly had abused the discovery process and displayed “utter disregard for the court.” Moofly moved for reversal of the terminating sanctions under Code of Civil Procedure section 473, which allows relief from defaults and dismissals entered as a consequence of mistakes or neglect. Defendants argued that that Moofly’s motion was an incorrectly-labeled motion for reconsideration under section 1008. On December 20, the court denied the motion, issued an order to show cause regarding sanctions against Moofly, and set the hearing for January 23, 2017. Moofly filed a response on January 18. On February 2, the court granted the motion for sanctions ($10.499.51) against Moofly and its attorney. The court of appeal reversed. Code of Civil Procedure section 1008 establishes the rules for motions for reconsideration, providing that a court may impose sanctions for violations “as allowed by [s]ection 128.7.” A court may not sanction a party for violating section 1008 without allowing the party a 21-day safe harbor to withdraw the offending motion, as required by section 128.7(c). Moofly did not receive the required 21-day notice to withdraw its motion fand avoid sanctions. View "Moofly Productions v. Favila" on Justia Law