Stiles v. Kearney

¶1 — Dee Ann Stiles filed a defamation complaint against Gerald Kearney. After granting Kearney’s summary judgment motion, the trial court found Stiles’s complaint was frivolous, the defamation claim was not supported by the law or facts, and that Stiles’s attorney had failed to conduct a reasonable inquiry before filing the complaint. Stiles and her attorney, Arleta Young, appeal, raising numerous procedural and substantive challenges to the trial court’s imposition of CR 11 and RCW 4.84.185 sanctions. Discerning no error, we affirm the trial court’s sanction decisions. We also hold that…