Richard L. Zaldivar v. City of Los Angeles, and Margaret Salazar, Intervenors-Appellees

WIGGINS, Circuit Judge:

The district court granted summary judgment for intervenors and assessed sanctions against plaintiffs and their attorneys in the amount of $14,951.25 for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Plaintiffs and their attorneys appeal from that portion of the judgment assessing sanctions against them. Under the circumstances of this case, the district court improperly assessed sanctions under Rule 11 and we reverse.

I

HISTORY OF THE CASE

In this case, the law was deployed as a weapon in a controversy for which it is ill-suited: a purely political dispute in…