HOA Satisfied Prelitigation Efforts To Resolve And Prevailed By Meetings Its Objectives.
In Durant Towers Owners Assn. v. Winchester, Case No. B288966 (2d Dist., Div. 8 March 29, 2019) (unpublished), HOA sued defendant condo owner to obtain access to her unit in order to determine if water leakage from her unit was causing damage to a unit below. After ignoring efforts for voluntarily cooperating, HOA sued under the CC&Rs to obtain access to defendant’s unit. At an injunction hearing, defendant agreed to allow access on certain terms, but later reneged. HOA obtained injunctive relief, the repairs were eventually made, and the case was dismissed without prejudice. HOA moved for recovery of attorney’s fees and costs as the prevailing party against defendant, based on the Davis-Stirling Act’s fee-shifting provision for CC&R enforcement (Civil Code section 5975) as well as the CC&R fee provision itself. The lower court obliged, awarding HOA $19,233 in fees and $815 in costs.
Defendant’s appeal was unsuccessful. She argued that HOA failed to exhaust administrative remedies, but that was rejected because (1) defendant thwarted voluntary efforts to gain access by the HOA, and (2) HOA’s certification of the need for injunctive relief in the complaint satisfied prelitigation efforts under Civil Code section 5950(a)(3). With respect to the claim that HOA did not prevail, it did obtain its main litigation objective to gain access and make repairs such that its voluntary dismissal did not change the fact it did meet its aims in the lawsuit.