Chan
Chan v. Bay Area Air Quality Management District
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Seven plaintiffs brought a class-action lawsuit against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and some of its officials, i.e., Ellen Garvey, Air Pollution Control Officer, and Scott Lutz, Compliance Engineer, contending that the adoption and enforcement of an air pollution control regulation (“the regulation”) affecting residential dry-cleaning establishments in the *863 San Francisco Bay Area violated the constitutional rights of the owners of these dry-cleaning establishments. After lengthy, preliminary litigation, the district court dismissed as frivolous the action by appellants, former operators of dry-cleaning establishments who remained as plaintiffs from the class action, and thereafter assessed sanctions against their attorney, Richard Canatella, under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 in the sum of $1049.
Three of the plaintiffs, Barry Chan, Alex Ma, and Don Denson, appeal the dismissal of the action, and attorney Canatella appeals the sanctions award. 1 We affirm the dismissal for reasons stated in this disposition. We vacate the sanctions solely because of the unusual and unauthorized procedures followed by the magistrate judge in this case.