Small

Defendants, Hall’s Furniture Defined Benefit Pension Plan and Kenneth B. Heller, have appealed from various orders. They now seek to dismiss their appeal without being required to pay the costs of plaintiffs, Sanford Small, Sheldon Small, Avis Sugarman, and John Kemp. We conclude that the appeal should be dismissed with each side to bear its own costs on appeal.

On November 3, 1998, defendants filed a notice of appeal from two orders. The first order was entered on September 29, 1998. The first order contested a determination made by a claims administrator in connection with a class action matter. The second order was entered on September 4, 1998. This order authorized distribution of certain settlement fund monies. In compliance with rule 5(a) of the California Rules of Court, defendants designated 19 documents to be included within the clerk’s transcript. Plaintiffs then filed a counterdesignation identifying 70 documents to be included within the clerk’s transcript.

During the extensive delay while the clerk’s transcript was being prepared, defendants retained appellate counsel, Honey Kessler Amado. Ms. Amado conducted a review of the potential issues that could be…