Halverson v. Seymour, Case No H032446 (6th Dist. June 22, 2010) (unpublished)—an affirmance In this one, husband appealed a $10,000 sanctions award of fees to wife under Family Code section 271. C’mon, is what the appellate court basically said on this one. There was evidence showing husband purchased a daycare facility and expensive jewelry […]
Second District, Division 6 Applies Exception to the General Rule. Generally, a judgment for damages under a contract replaces a defendant’s duty to perform the contract, which extinguishes any fee clause upon entry of judgment (except for postjudgment recovery of fees as specified under the CRC). (Jaffe v. Pacelli, 165 Cal.App.4th 927, 934.)
In Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 2010 WL 2025127 (U.S. May 24, 2010), the U.S. Supreme Court decided that an ERISA litigant does not have to “prevail,” but still must achieve some degree of success on the merits before being entitled to an attorney’s fees award under the ERISA fee-shifting statute,
Second District, Division 8 Gives Us a Good Reminder on Statutory Interplay of Costs Provisions. Although the facts are important in other respects, Trattmann v. Key, Case No. B204150 (2d Dist., Div. 8 June 22, 2010) (unpublished) is a great reminder on how statutory provisions regarding an award of routine costs interact with each
Fourth District, Division 2 Nixes Overly Technical Argument on Deadlines. You knew where this one would end when the appellate panel concluded at the tail end of the opinion that “Plaintiff’s contention on appeal elevates form over substance.” That meant the trial court’s order awarding costs, including attorney’s fees, in the amount of $8,078.35
In our May 28, 2010 post, we reported on the decision of Center For Biological Diversity v. County of San Bernardino, a decision that was partially published but was not certified for publication on the discussion of a fee award under California’s private attorney general statute. We can now report that the entire decision
Fee Motion Found Timely and Declaratory Relief Action Was “On the Contract” for Purposes of Justifying the Award. We knew that this next case was going to be a crazy one, when Acting Presiding Justice Yegan wrote, “Within a year or so, [the] relationship [between neighbors] had deteriorated from a warm friendship to
Second District, Division 2 Nixes Primary Trope Challenge On Appeal. Here is an interesting one to add to the Trope jurisprudence, although it is unpublished in nature. The end result is that a general manager of a represented client likely is analogous to an in-house counsel lacking the personal interest to disqualify the manager’s
Appellate Panel Disagrees With “Pleading and Proof” Approach in Carwash. Many attorney fees clauses have language that allows the prevailing party to recover both attorney’s fees and “witness and expert fees.” Although Code of Civil Procedure section 1033.5 does not permit expert witness fees to be recovered as statutory costs, case law does recognize
Opinions Seem to Vary Among Orange County Attorneys Representing Districts. In the June 19, 2010 edition of The Orange County Register, Annie Burris, Teri Sforza and Tony Saavedra have written an article entitled “Trustee on transparency crusade.” Among other things, it explores the topic of whether legal billings to Orange County school districts are
