SAMIRA HARIRAMASAMY v. ZACHARY CALHOUN, Santa Clara County Superior Court Case Numbers CH005766, and CH005767.



Attorney Robert Daye is listed by the court of appeals as the attorney for the defendants who filed the appeal.




Mr. Daye appears to be at least 70 years old since he has practiced law since 1969.




According to the opinion by the court of appeal, attorney Daye represented two defendants appealing a trial judge's order holding them in contempt of court.

There was apparently a dispute between neighbors. They resolved the dispute with a court ordered mediator by entering into a court ordered judgment about their conduct. The judge later found the defendants had on multiple times violated their agreement and court order. There were eight violations, including yelling, banging on the fence, playing drums in the middle of the night, and not paying for repairs agreed to in the order.

After attorney Daye's clients were found to be in contempt of court, an appeal was filed.

The problem ...

Contempt orders are final and not appealable.

The response by the court of appeal to Robert Daye's appeal appears to be harsh.

The court said "the appealability of a contempt order or judgment is not debatable" and "ample case authority establishes that a party must seek writ relief in these circumstances". But Robert Daye for his clients "offered no support" for a request to treat the appeal as a writ.

Then it got worse.

The court of appeal went ahead and reviewed the merits of the appeal - and found none.

The order the parties agreed to about their conduct was "clear, specific, and unequivocal". Robert Days for his clients offered "no authority" to support a claim the order was invalid.

The result was the appeal was dismissed.





Lawzilla Commentary: In our view the attorney incompetence is shocking. This old attorney has practiced long enough to know what orders are appealable and what orders or not - or at least should be able to pick-up a law book to find out.

Or maybe his skills have diminished and it is time to retire before more clients are harmed. Who knows what, if anything, has clients had to pay for this dismal result.

Based on this ruling we would not recommend Robert Daye as an attorney.

Robert Daye was admitted to the California Bar in 1969. Bar Number 43307.

849 Menlo Avenue
Menlo Park, California 94025

Law School: University of San Francisco