In re Marriage of Seachrist CA4/3

DISCUSSION

1. Introduction A comment about husband’s opening brief. We do not appreciate attorney Robert J. Wheeler’s filing a brief filled with a cacophony of pejorative hyperbole. He starts out with the following paragraph: “The appellant in this case, a current employee of the County of Orange and, a totally blameless individual, is the tragic victim of a legal crossfire between a totally unreasonable ex-wife, on the one side, and a heartless nine billion dollar government retirement system, on the other side—all to his substantial financial detriment.” He calls the conduct of the retirement system “deplorable.” Throughout the brief, Mr. Wheeler stresses the wealth of the retirement system, the insensitivity of its administrators in their refusal to just pay his (as we will show, unwarranted) demands, and the unreasonableness of the former spouse’s request. This type of language is inappropriate and the implication that we should ignore the law to help Mr. Wheeler’s “totally blameless” client does not serve his cause. We urge Mr. Wheeler to refrain from such conduct in the future.

2. The Applicable Law Two cases answer the issues raised by this case: Gillmore, supra, 29…