Abandonato

Plaintiff Joe Abandonato appeals a postjudgment order awarding defendants, attorneys who represented themselves in propria persona, $4,500 in attorney fees pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5. We affirm.

In February 1992, Robert Kayyem filed a complaint for declaratory relief against Abandonato to determine the enforceability of a $525,000 promissory note purportedly written in 1982. Kayyem alleged no such note was ever made and he did not owe Abandonato any money. Abandonato filed a 58-page cross-complaint alleging Kayyem owed him money under the note. However, when Abandonato failed to produce the original note in response to various discovery requests, the court dismissed the cross-complaint as a discovery sanction. [1]

Two weeks before his cross-complaint was dismissed, Abandonato filed a 60-page complaint for abuse of process and invasion of privacy against Kayyem and his attorneys for purported discovery abuses in the declaratory relief action. However, a few weeks later Abandonato voluntarily dismissed the action and then immediately filed a new complaint making the same allegations. [2] Kayyem (who is an attorney) and his attorneys…