Tiffany

The underlying action is a third party bad faith insurance case brought by plaintiffs Alex Tiffany et al„ against defendants State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm) et al. This appeal involves only a collateral order which imposed a monetary sanction of $2,500, payable to plaintiffs, against appellants State Farm and its attorneys, Spray, Gould & Bowers. The sanction was for violation of a local superior court rule involving double spacing versus one and one-half spacing in typewritten memoranda of points and authorities. The sanction order is independently appealable, apart from the underlying action, under Code of Civil Procedure section 904.1, subdivision (k).

The alleged local rule violation occurred in the memorandum of points and authorities filed by State Farm in support of State Farm’s motion for summary judgment filed May 17, 1990. State Farm moved for summary judgment on two grounds: (1) that plaintiffs’ case is governed by Oregon law which does not recognize a third party bad faith insurance cause of action, and (2) that there had been no conclusive judicial determination of the insured driver’s liability, as required by Moradi-Shalal v.…