Court's patience exhausted; Plaintiff's case dismissed despite arguments over ex parte contact

The  Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the Dawn Kyle's partition and accounting case when she failed to appear for a re-scheduled trial.  She complained that the Court had re-scheduled the trial at an inconvenient date at the defendants' request, after she appeared for a pre-trial conference that the Defendants failed to attend. Unfortunately, she had already refused to appear for the original scheduling conference because of the "difficulties of wintertime air travel" from California, and it appears that the trial judge's patience was exhausted. 

The Plaintiff also objected to the fact that the Defendants had made ex parte contact with the judge to re-schedule the hearing she did attend.  The Court noted that ex parte contact over scheduling matters is not a violation of ethics if not substantive legal matters are raised.